Assessment of PM dry deposition on solar energy harvesting systems: Measurement–model comparison

Boyle, Liza; Flinchpaugh, Holly; Hannigan, Michael P.

doi:10.1080/02786826.2016.1153797

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…[5] showed poor correlation between adjacent measurements of the daily PM 10 and the daily soiling rate, and Ref. [52] showed that on-site PM 10 measurements were only able to predict 9% of the variation of the mass loading rate on PV glass. Both of these studies were examining variation in PM 10 and PV soiling metrics over a very short time period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation of the key parameters for predicting PV soiling losses

Micheli

Muller

2017

Progress in Photovoltaics

124

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One hundred and two environmental and meteorological parameters have been investigated and compared with the performance of 20 soiling stations installed in the USA, in order to determine their ability to predict the soiling losses occurring on PV systems. The results of this investigation showed that the annual average of the daily mean particulate matter values recorded by monitoring stations deployed near the PV systems are the best soiling predictors, with coefficients of determination (R 2 ) as high as 0.82. The precipitation pattern was also found to be relevant: among the different meteorological parameters, the average length of dry periods had the best correlation with the soiling ratio. A preliminary investigation of two-variable regressions was attempted and resulted in an adjusted R 2 of 0.90 when a combination of PM 2.5 and a binary classification for the average length of the dry period was introduced.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation of the key parameters for predicting PV soiling losses

Micheli

Muller

2017

Progress in Photovoltaics

124

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Glass coupons are a standard method for the analysis of soiling of photovoltaics and have been used in a number of research papers 11,39,41,42,[47][48][49][50][51] . In addition, recently launched low-maintenance soiling detectors quantify the loss of PV modules through the optical analysis of the contamination accumulated on glass 52,53 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling photovoltaic soiling losses through optical characterization

Smestad

Germer

Alrashidi

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The accumulation of soiling on photovoltaic (PV) modules affects PV systems worldwide. Soiling consists of mineral dust, soot particles, aerosols, pollen, fungi and/or other contaminants that deposit on the surface of PV modules. Soiling absorbs, scatters, and reflects a fraction of the incoming sunlight, reducing the intensity that reaches the active part of the solar cell. Here, we report on the comparison of naturally accumulated soiling on coupons of PV glass soiled at seven locations worldwide. The spectral hemispherical transmittance was measured. It was found that natural soiling disproportionately impacts the blue and ultraviolet (UV) portions of the spectrum compared to the visible and infrared (iR). Also, the general shape of the transmittance spectra was similar at all the studied sites and could adequately be described by a modified form of the Ångström turbidity equation. In addition, the distribution of particles sizes was found to follow the IEST-STD-CC 1246E cleanliness standard. The fractional coverage of the glass surface by particles could be determined directly or indirectly and, as expected, has a linear correlation with the transmittance. It thus becomes feasible to estimate the optical consequences of the soiling of pV modules from the particle size distribution and the cleanliness value. Soiling has a negative impact on the economic revenues of PV installations, not only because it reduces the amount of energy converted by the PV modules, but also because it introduces additional operating and maintenance costs and, at the same time, increases the uncertainty on the estimation of PV performance, leading to both higher financial risks and interest rates charged to plant developers. Power reductions greater than 50% have been reported in the literature because of soiling 1,2 ; it has been estimated that an average loss of 4% on the global annual energy yield of PV could cause losses in revenue on the order of 2 × 10 9 US$ annually 3. A careful monitoring of soiling is required to mitigate its effect 4. Soiling losses are generally quantified by using soiling stations. These systems are made of at least two PV devices, one of which is regularly cleaned while the other is left to soil naturally. By comparing the ratio of the electrical outputs of the two devices, it is possible to estimate the impact of soiling on the PV performance 5,6. The International Electrotechnical Commission's (IEC) metric to monitor and quantify the impact of soiling on PV modules is the soiling ratio, r s , which expresses the ratio of the electrical output of a soiled PV device to the output of the same device under clean conditions 7. Like the transmittance, a higher soiling ratio translates to less soiling deposited on the modules. A value of 1 indicates clean conditions, with no soiling. For a more detailed definition of r s , please refer to the Methodology section. The fractional loss of solar-generated power due to soiling is 1 − r s .

show abstract

“…Outdoor mounted PV coupons were used by Burton et al [21] to study the composition and the size distribution of soiling deposited on PV modules. The same setup, replicated also in a second location, was used by Boyle et al [22] to investigate the deposition of particle matter on PV systems. Similarly, the dust accumulated on PV glass coupons was used by Conceição et al [23] to estimate the soiling loss occurring on two mono-Si PV modules nearby.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlating photovoltaic soiling losses to waveband and single-value transmittance measurements

Micheli

Caballero

Férnández

et al. 2019

Energy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents the results of an investigation on the spectral losses of photovoltaic (PV) soiling. The transmittance of a glass coupon exposed to natural soiling outdoors in Jaén, southern Spain, has been measured weekly and used to estimate the soiling losses that various types of photovoltaic materials would experience if installed in the same location. The results suggest that measuring the hemispherical transmittance of the soiling accumulated on a PV glass coupon can give enough information to quantify the impact of soiling on energy production. Each PV technology is found to have a preferred spectral region, or a specific single wavelength, for which the transmittance through a PV glass coupon could be used for the best estimation of soiling losses. Overall, considering the average spectral transmittance between the extreme wavelengths of the material-specific absorption band, or the transmittance of soiling at a single wavelength between 500 and 600 nm yields the best estimations for different PV technologies. The results of this work can lead to innovative approaches to detect soiling in the field and to estimate the impact of spectral changes induced by soiling on PV energy production.

show abstract

Assessment of PM dry deposition on solar energy harvesting systems: Measurement–model comparison

Cited by 40 publications

References 25 publications

An investigation of the key parameters for predicting PV soiling losses

An investigation of the key parameters for predicting PV soiling losses

Modelling photovoltaic soiling losses through optical characterization

Correlating photovoltaic soiling losses to waveband and single-value transmittance measurements

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About