Fundamental Studies of Adhesion of Dust to PV Module Surfaces: Chemical and Physical Relationships at the Microscale

Kazmerski, Lawrence L.; Diniz, Antonia Sonia A. C.; Maia, Cristiana Brasil; Viana, Marcelo Machado; Costa, Suellen Caroline Silva; Brito, Pedro; Campos, Cláudio Milton Montenegro; Neto, Lauro V. Macheto; Hanriot, Sérgio de Morais; Cruz, L. R.

doi:10.1109/jphotov.2016.2528409

Cited by 81 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The original EL image does not specifically presents an actual damage/micro cracks in the PV module, since as stated earlier in section III, and IV in our article, the CCD camera strongly depends on its resolution and noise filtration process.  Last but not least, the thermal hot spots does not necessary corresponds to micro cracks, since the hot spot might be a dust [18], increase in the PV temperature [19], or snow [20]. Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Photovoltaic Micro Crack Detection Technique

Dhimish

Holmes

Mather

2019

IEEE Trans. Device Mater. Relib.

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This paper presents a novel detection technique for inspecting solar cells micro cracks. Initially, the solar cell is captured using Electroluminescence (EL) method, then processed by the proposed technique. The technique consist of three stages, the first stage combines two images, the first image is the crackfree (healthy) solar cell, whereas the second is the cracked solar cell image. Both output images processed into a bit-by-bit gridding technique, which enables the detection of all bits in the considered area of the cracked solar cell. The second stage uses an OR gate between each of the examined bits for both healthy and cracked solar cells. The final calibrated image presents a high quality, and low noise structure, thus easier to identify the micro crack size, location and its orientation. In order to examine the effectiveness of the proposed technique, three different cracked PV solar cells have been examined. The results show that the micro cracks size, orientation, and location is more visible using the proposed technique. In addition, the developed technique has been validated using a full scale PV module, and compared with up to date available PV micro crack detection methods.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Photovoltaic Micro Crack Detection Technique

Dhimish

Holmes

Mather

2019

IEEE Trans. Device Mater. Relib.

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“…The forces mainly include adhesion forces and detachment forces (surface tension force and hydrodynamic force). For small dust particles (diameter < 500 µm), the adhesion forces are mainly van der Waals forces and the electrostatic force in dry environments, as well as the capillary force in humid environments 3,37 . The adhesion force for a single particle on a surface can be in the range of 100~300 nN, as characterized by an AFM tip 3 .…”

Section: Dust Particle Adhesion Force and Water Droplet Cleaning Forcementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dust particles primarily consist of quartz and silicate minerals but also have lower concentrations of elements such as area-specific minerals, agricultural components, and fuel components. The general dust particle size distribution is in the 30~160 μm range 3,4 . Dust particles will accumulate on the cover glass of the solar panel modules and reduce the amount of light that reaches the solar cells to be converted to electricity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An active self-cleaning surface system for photovoltaic modules using anisotropic ratchet conveyors and mechanical vibration

Sun

Böhringer

2020

Microsyst Nanoeng

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The purpose of this work is to develop an active self-cleaning system that removes contaminants from a solar module surface by means of an automatic, water-saving, and labor-free process. The output efficiency of a solar module can be degraded over time by dust accumulation on top of the cover glass, which is often referred to as “soiling”. This paper focuses on creating an active self-cleaning surface system using a combination of microsized features and mechanical vibration. The features, which are termed anisotropic ratchet conveyors (ARCs), consist of hydrophilic curved rungs on a hydrophobic background. Two different ARC systems have been designed and fabricated with self-assembled monolayer (SAM) silane and fluoropolymer thin film (Cytop). Fabrication processes were established to fabricate these two systems, including patterning Cytop without degrading the original Cytop hydrophobicity. Water droplet transport characteristics, including anisotropic driving force, droplet resonance mode, cleaning mechanisms, and system power consumption, were studied with the help of a high-speed camera and custom-made test benches. The droplet can be transported on the ARC surface at a speed of 27 mm/s and can clean a variety of dust particles, either water-soluble or insoluble. Optical transmission was measured to show that Cytop can improve transmittance by 2.5~3.5% across the entire visible wavelength range. Real-time demonstrations of droplet transport and surface cleaning were performed, in which the solar modules achieved a 23 percentage-point gain after cleaning.

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“…The primary investigation made in [ 10 , 11 , 28 , 30 , 31 ], are the change in the transmission of the PV cover surface due to the dust deposition. A linear relationship between the transmission loss and dust deposition was observed according to [10] .…”

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

An updated review on factors and their inter-linked influences on photovoltaic system performance

Rao

Mani

Ramamurthy

2018

Heliyon

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Globally installed solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity has crossed three hundred gigawatts and is increasing each year. As the share of solar PV in the energy mix of a country increases, forecasting PV power available will be crucial. To forecast the instantaneous and long-term PV power output, understanding the factors influencing them is necessary. In this view, this work elaborates on the factors that impact the PV system through tabulation and graphical explanation. Further, a discussion of the articles related to the dust-induced change in performance is made. To understand the impact of dust on solar PV systems in depth, advanced instrumentation and methodologies have been used in the past few years. One of the methods is the measurement of spectral transmittance/reflectance/absorptance of the dust layer on the PV panel. This has led to the question whether a thin layer of some specific dust can be beneficial by absorbing infrared (IR) heat and hence allowing the PV cells to operate at a lower temperature. Many controlled experiments in the laboratory have been made using the artificial dust and sun simulators; and such studies aid in the development of numerical models. Research in modeling, mathematical analysis (from first principles) of dust deposition, and calculation of its impact on panels have been given importance in recent years. Outdoor experiments are relatively more common than other modes of research in this field. Studies involving the interaction of deposited dust with spectral radiation, improving the correlation between artificial and natural dust deposition, the interplay between dust and atmospheric parameters are to be encouraged.

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Fundamental Studies of Adhesion of Dust to PV Module Surfaces: Chemical and Physical Relationships at the Microscale

Cited by 81 publications

References 37 publications

Novel Photovoltaic Micro Crack Detection Technique

Novel Photovoltaic Micro Crack Detection Technique

An active self-cleaning surface system for photovoltaic modules using anisotropic ratchet conveyors and mechanical vibration

An updated review on factors and their inter-linked influences on photovoltaic system performance

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