Effect of dust physical on the performance of poly-crystalline PV module based on indoor experiment

Abstract

Dust accumulation on PV module surface or known as soiling phenomenon is one of the environmental factors that contribute to PV module performance reduction. Its presence will reduce the absorbance of sunlight and the energy being converted into electricity. This issue has been discussed in various studies to highlight its impact on PV system performance and reliability when exposed under actual operating conditions. In addition, the surrounding environment, climate behaviour and rise in module temperature are other factors affect the PV energy output and these factors are unpredictable and difficult to justify. This paper presents an experimental-based approach to investigate the effect of soiling on PV module performance in a laboratory condition. The indoor experiment involved with accelerated artificial dust loading for testing dust physical property which is the density of dust accumulation, relative size and dust colour. The findings show that proliferation of soiling density has severe effect to the short circuit current (Isc) but minimal to open circuit voltage (Voc) reduction. On the dust particle relative size, the result has proven that the finer dust particle in soiling can reduce the PV module performance more than the coarser particle. Meanwhile, the brighter dust tones and colours are found to reduce module performance more than the darker one.