Using renewable energy is developing exponentially. Reliability and availability analysis of equipment for electricity generation based on renewable energy resources have certain features due to structural and functional specificity of these facilities. This paper aims to present the specificity of availability analysis of power generation using photovoltaic sources (PVS). After showing how the subject fits into the general issue of availability analysis and into particular issues, in the second part of the paper is presented the proposed model to assess the availability of PVS structured in two levels: intrinsic and extrinsic. An appropriate case study useful for instantiating the mathematical model is exposed in the third part and in the last part conclusions are presented.

Keywords: Photovoltaic sources, Availability, Modeling, Simulation