IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v51y2013icp439-446.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On-site PV characterization and the effect of soiling on their performance

Author

Listed:
  • Kalogirou, Soteris A.
  • Agathokleous, Rafaela
  • Panayiotou, Gregoris

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the characteristics of three types of PV panels: monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous silicon and the effects of soiling on their performance using on-site measurements. The total system consists of the three types of panels in pairs. Initially, the characterization of the PV panels is carried out to prove the similarity of the two pairs. Another test performed is the degradation of PV's performance under extreme soiling conditions caused by the artificial deposition of dust on the panels when their surface was dry and when it was wet before the dust deposition. The results showed that especially the artificial soiling on the wet PV surface presents a serious degradation of the PV performance. Finally, the effect of natural dust deposition on the panel's surfaces for a year is investigated. During this period a total of three dust episodes were recorded. These dust episodes concern the transfer of dust from the Sahara desert and these episodes usually end with a light rain which sticks the dust on exposed surfaces including PVs. Due to the exceptionally wet weather that we had during the testing period all episodes were followed by heavy rain, but even in this case a serious degradation of the performance of about 13% of the affected PV panels was recorded. The first finding of this study is that in winter the occasional rain is adequate to keep the PV surfaces clean whereas when a dust episode occurs, the panels should be cleaned manually. This is not the case for the summer time, which for Cyprus lasts for more than 8 months. The recommended cleaning is immediately after a dust episode and every 2–3 weeks in summer time according to how much loss the owner of the PV is willing to accept and the associated cleaning cost.

Suggested Citation

  • Kalogirou, Soteris A. & Agathokleous, Rafaela & Panayiotou, Gregoris, 2013. "On-site PV characterization and the effect of soiling on their performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 439-446.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:51:y:2013:i:c:p:439-446
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2012.12.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544212009309
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2012.12.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Panayiotou, Gregoris & Kalogirou, Soteris & Tassou, Savvas, 2012. "Design and simulation of a PV and a PV–Wind standalone energy system to power a household application," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 355-363.
    2. Mani, Monto & Pillai, Rohit, 2010. "Impact of dust on solar photovoltaic (PV) performance: Research status, challenges and recommendations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 3124-3131, December.
    3. Kaldellis, J.K. & Fragos, P. & Kapsali, M., 2011. "Systematic experimental study of the pollution deposition impact on the energy yield of photovoltaic installations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 2717-2724.
    4. Kaldellis, J.K. & Kokala, A., 2010. "Quantifying the decrease of the photovoltaic panels’ energy yield due to phenomena of natural air pollution disposal," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 4862-4869.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saidan, Motasem & Albaali, Abdul Ghani & Alasis, Emil & Kaldellis, John K., 2016. "Experimental study on the effect of dust deposition on solar photovoltaic panels in desert environment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 499-505.
    2. Karim Menoufi, 2017. "Dust Accumulation on the Surface of Photovoltaic Panels: Introducing the Photovoltaic Soiling Index (PVSI)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-12, June.
    3. Kaldellis, J.K. & Kapsali, M., 2011. "Simulating the dust effect on the energy performance of photovoltaic generators based on experimental measurements," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 5154-5161.
    4. Zaihidee, Fardila Mohd & Mekhilef, Saad & Seyedmahmoudian, Mehdi & Horan, Ben, 2016. "Dust as an unalterable deteriorative factor affecting PV panel's efficiency: Why and how," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1267-1278.
    5. Song, Zhe & Liu, Jia & Yang, Hongxing, 2021. "Air pollution and soiling implications for solar photovoltaic power generation: A comprehensive review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    6. Darwish, Zeki Ahmed & Kazem, Hussein A. & Sopian, K. & Al-Goul, M.A. & Alawadhi, Hussain, 2015. "Effect of dust pollutant type on photovoltaic performance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 735-744.
    7. Zeki Ahmed Darwish & Hussein A. Kazem & K. Sopian & M. A. Alghoul & Hussain Alawadhi, 2018. "Experimental investigation of dust pollutants and the impact of environmental parameters on PV performance: an experimental study," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 155-174, February.
    8. Mostafa. F. Shaaban & Amal Alarif & Mohamed Mokhtar & Usman Tariq & Ahmed H. Osman & A. R. Al-Ali, 2020. "A New Data-Based Dust Estimation Unit for PV Panels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    9. Huang, Pengluan & Hu, Guoqiang & Zhao, Xiaodong & Lu, Luyi & Ding, Honggang & Li, Jianlan, 2022. "Effect of organics on the adhesion of dust to PV panel surfaces under condensation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    10. Conceição, Ricardo & González-Aguilar, José & Merrouni, Ahmed Alami & Romero, Manuel, 2022. "Soiling effect in solar energy conversion systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    11. Wang, Zhaohua & Li, Yi & Wang, Ke & Huang, Zhimin, 2017. "Environment-adjusted operational performance evaluation of solar photovoltaic power plants: A three stage efficiency analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1153-1162.
    12. Carmen Otilia Rusănescu & Marin Rusănescu & Irina Aura Istrate & Gabriel Alexandru Constantin & Mihaela Begea, 2023. "The Effect of Dust Deposition on the Performance of Photovoltaic Panels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-20, September.
    13. Maheri, Alireza, 2014. "A critical evaluation of deterministic methods in size optimisation of reliable and cost effective standalone hybrid renewable energy systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 159-174.
    14. Gabriel López & Diego Ramírez & Joaquín Alonso-Montesinos & Juan Sarmiento & Jesús Polo & Nuria Martín-Chivelet & Aitor Marzo & Francisco Javier Batlles & Pablo Ferrada, 2021. "Design of a Low-Cost Multiplexer for the Study of the Impact of Soiling on PV Panel Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-12, July.
    15. Sarver, Travis & Al-Qaraghuli, Ali & Kazmerski, Lawrence L., 2013. "A comprehensive review of the impact of dust on the use of solar energy: History, investigations, results, literature, and mitigation approaches," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 698-733.
    16. Ghazi, Sanaz & Ip, Kenneth, 2014. "The effect of weather conditions on the efficiency of PV panels in the southeast of UK," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 50-59.
    17. Ghosh, Santosh & Yadav, Vinod Kumar & Mukherjee, Vivekananda, 2018. "Evaluation of cumulative impact of partial shading and aerosols on different PV array topologies through combined Shannon's entropy and DEA," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 765-775.
    18. Pankaj Borah & Leonardo Micheli & Nabin Sarmah, 2023. "Analysis of Soiling Loss in Photovoltaic Modules: A Review of the Impact of Atmospheric Parameters, Soil Properties, and Mitigation Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-26, December.
    19. Babatunde, A.A. & Abbasoglu, S. & Senol, M., 2018. "Analysis of the impact of dust, tilt angle and orientation on performance of PV Plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 1017-1026.
    20. Pandey, Shreemat & Singh, Vijai Shanker & Gangwar, Naresh Pal & Vijayvergia, M.M. & Prakash, Chandra & Pandey, Deep Narayan, 2012. "Determinants of success for promoting solar energy in Rajasthan, India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 3593-3598.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:51:y:2013:i:c:p:439-446. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.