Fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) of photovoltaic (PV) power systems is one of significant techniques for reducing economic loss due to abnormality occurred in PV modules. This paper presents a new FDD method against PV power systems by using statistical comparison. This comparative approach includes deviation signals between the outputs of two neighboring PV modules. We first define a binary hypothesis testing under such deviation and make use of a generalized likelihood ratio testing (GLRT) theory to derive its FDD algorithm. Additionally, a recursive computational mechanism for our proposed FDD algorithm is presented for improving a computational effectiveness in practice. We carry out a real-time experiment to test reliability of the proposed FDD algorithm by utilizing a lab based PV test-bed system.