The field experiments and model of the natural dust deposition effects on photovoltaic module efficiency

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Apr 2018

The maximisation of the efficiency of the photovoltaic system is crucial in order to increase the competitiveness of this technology. Unfortunately, several environmental factors in addition to many alterable and unalterable factors can significantly influence the performance of the PV system. Some of the environmental factors that depend on the site have to do with dust, soiling and pollutants. In this study conducted in the city centre of Kraków, Poland, characterised by high pollution and low wind speed, the focus is on the evaluation of the degradation of efficiency of polycrystalline photovoltaic modules due to natural dust deposition. The experimental results that were obtained demonstrated that deposited dust-related efficiency loss gradually increased with the mass and that it follows the exponential. The maximum dust deposition density observed for rainless exposure periods of 1 week exceeds 300 mg/m2 and the results in efficiency loss were about 2.1%. It was observed that efficiency loss is not only mass-dependent but that it also depends on the dust properties. The small positive effect of the tiny dust layer which slightly increases in surface roughness on the module performance was also observed. The results that were obtained enable the development of a reliable model for the degradation of the efficiency of the PV module caused by dust deposition. The novelty consists in the model, which is easy to apply and which is dependent on the dust mass, for low and moderate naturally deposited dust concentration (up to 1 and 5 g/m2 and representative for many geographical regions) and which is applicable to the majority of cases met in an urban and non-urban polluted area can be used to evaluate the dust deposition-related derating factor (efficiency loss), which is very much sought after by the system designers, and tools used for computer modelling and system malfunction detection.

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The field experiments and model of the natural dust deposition effects on photovoltaic module efficiency

The field experiments and model of the natural dust deposition effects on photovoltaic module efficiency Marek Jaszczur 0 1 2 Natalia Łopian 0 1 2 Janusz Teneta 0 1 2 Katarzyna Styszko 0 1 2 Qusay Hassan 0 1 2 Paulina Burzyńska 0 1 2 Ewelina Marcinek 0 1 2 0 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Diyala , Baqubah , Iraq 1 Faculty of Electrical Engineering , Automatics , Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology , Krakow , Poland 2 Faculty of Energy and Fuels, AGH University of Science and Technology , Krakow , Poland 3 Marek Jaszczur The maximisation of the efficiency of the photovoltaic system is crucial in order to increase the competitiveness of this technology. Unfortunately, several environmental factors in addition to many alterable and unalterable factors can significantly influence the performance of the PV system. Some of the environmental factors that depend on the site have to do with dust, soiling and pollutants. In this study conducted in the city centre of Kraków, Poland, characterised by high pollution and low wind speed, the focus is on the evaluation of the degradation of efficiency of polycrystalline photovoltaic modules due to natural dust deposition. The experimental results that were obtained demonstrated that deposited dust-related efficiency loss gradually increased with the mass and that it follows the exponential. The maximum dust deposition density observed for rainless exposure periods of 1 week exceeds 300 mg/m2 and the results in efficiency loss were about 2.1%. It was observed that efficiency loss is not only mass-dependent but that it also depends on the dust properties. The small positive effect of the tiny dust layer which slightly increases in surface roughness on the module performance was also observed. The results that were obtained enable the development of a reliable model for the degradation of the efficiency of the PV module caused by dust deposition. The novelty consists in the model, which is easy to apply and which is dependent on the dust mass, for low and moderate naturally deposited dust concentration (up to 1 and 5 g/m2 and representative for many geographical regions) and which is applicable to the majority of cases met in an urban and non-urban polluted area can be used to evaluate the dust deposition-related derating factor (efficiency loss), which is very much sought after by the system designers, and tools used for computer modelling and system malfunction detection. PVefficiency loss; Photovoltaic modules; PV derating factor; Dust deposition; Renewable energy; Air pollution Introduction Solar energy is one of the major sources of renewable energy; it is free and non-permeable and clean and has various Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues applications—direct and indirect ones. With the current development, it is reasonable to convert solar energy directly into the most desirable type of energy—electrical energy using a photovoltaic cell. The efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) modules systematically increases and at the same time the manufacturing prices gradually decrease. Therefore, in recent years, a significant increase in the solar energy investment is observed (Primer 2009) . The performance of the photovoltaic modules is affected by several environmental factors such as wind speed, ambient temperature, humidity, rainfall, incident solar radiation intensity and spectrum, dust deposition, pollution and shadowing in addition to many alterable and unalterable factors that can influence the PV system efficiency. Dust, soiling and pollutants are one of the environmental factors that depend on the geographical location and that may be categorised within a set of factors that cannot be changed and that may significantly influence the photovoltaic efficiency whether particles are scattered in the atmosphere or deposited on the module surface. In any case, the above factors involve the scattering of solar radiation and reduction of solar radiation intensity that can reach the photovoltaic module surfaces. The PV module performance decrease influenced by dust constitutes a local phenomenon and may differ significantly from region to region (Hassan et al. 2016a; Hassan et al. 2017; see also literature in Fig. 3) . In recent years, many research studies were performed, reporting the dust and pollution influence on efficiency degradation of the photovoltaic modules. The air pollution can be considered in urban areas due to the combustion of fossil fuels, vehicles, construction activities and the industry (Benatiallah et al. 2012; Pang et al. 2006) . A considerable number of researchers have devoted their work to studying the sources and composition of the dust grains from many different regions of the world (Styszko et al. 2017) . It is already known that the dust composition may differ depending on the region (Fujiwara et al. 2011) . In dry climates and deserts, the key source of the dus (...truncated)


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Marek Jaszczur, Janusz Teneta, Katarzyna Styszko, Qusay Hassan, Paulina Burzyńska, Ewelina Marcinek, Natalia Łopian. The field experiments and model of the natural dust deposition effects on photovoltaic module efficiency, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2018, pp. 1-16, DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-1970-x