Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec;29(59):88788-88802.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-21958-5. Epub 2022 Jul 15.

A comparison of dust impacts on polycrystalline and monocrystalline solar photovoltaic performance: an outdoor experimental study

Hussein A Kazem  1   2 , Miqdam T Chaichan  3 , Ali H A Al-Waeli  4
Affiliations

A comparison of dust impacts on polycrystalline and monocrystalline solar photovoltaic performance: an outdoor experimental study

Hussein A Kazem et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Solar cells are considered one of the most important and widespread solar applications in the world. However, the performance of the PV modules is significantly affected by the dust in the air. This paper, therefore, presents a comparison of an outdoor experimental study of dust effect on monocrystalline, and polycrystalline photovoltaic (PV) modules. For analysis, four 100 W PVs were installed horizontally in Sohar, Oman. For each pair of PV modules, one was left dusty due to environmental impact, and the second was cleaned daily. PV performance and environmental parameter measurements were conducted every 30 min for 35 days. The effects of dust on current, voltage, power, and energy were discussed in terms of time and normalized values. Also, cleaning methods were tested to determine the optimum one. It is found that power degradation of monocrystalline (20%) is higher compared with polycrystalline (12%) due to dust accumulation. For monocrystalline, the current, voltage, and power losses ranged between 10.0-24.0%, 2.0-3.5%, and 14.0-31.0%, respectively. However, for polycrystalline, the degradation rates were 16.88-27.92%, 0.455-0.455%, and 17.14-28.1% for current, voltage, and power losses after exposure to outdoor conditions for the same period, respectively. The dust accumulation on the PV surface found after 5 weeks is 0.493 mg/cm2, which can be considered the lowest accumulation rate compared to other Gulf countries, but which, however, leads to less energy degradation as well. It is found that water is sufficient to clean PV in the study area. However, sodium detergent as a cleaner introduced better results compared to water, especially when there is high pollution in the location.

Keywords: Dust impact; PV performance; Photovoltaic; Soiling; Solar energy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Al-Housani M, Bicer Y, Koç M (2019) Experimental investigations on PV cleaning of large-scale solar power plants in desert climates: comparison of cleaning techniques for drone retrofitting. Energy Convers Manage 185(January):800–815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.01.058 - DOI
    1. Al-Waeli AHA, Sopian K, Kazem HA, Chaichan MT (2017) Photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems: status and future prospects. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 77(2017):109–130 - DOI
    1. Alagoz S, Apak Y (2020) Removal of spoiling materials from solar panel surfaces by applying surface acoustic waves. J Clean Prod 253:119992. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.119992 - DOI
    1. Alghamdi AS, Bahaj AS, Blunden LS, Wu Y (2019) Dust removal from solar PV modules by automated cleaning systems. Energies 12:2923 - DOI
    1. Alnasser TMA et al (2020) Impact of dust ingredient on photovoltaic performance: an experimental study. Sol Energy 195(November 2019):651–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.12.008 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources