Dust Effect on PV Modules

This paper investigates the effect of dust on photovoltaic (PV) modules with respect to dust concentration, wavelength and spectral transmittance. Dust samples were collected from Kuwait in the form of raw dust and accumulated dust on sample glass at different tilt angles. The spectral transmittance was measured in the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) laboratory with a spectrophotometer. Spectral transmittance variation was identified for samples at different tilted positions, where the worst case was presented at a tilt angle of 30o with a non uniformity of 4.4% in comparison to 0.2% for the 90o tilt between the top, middle and bottom. The measured data showed a faster rate of decrease in transmittance at wavelengths <570 nm. This affects thin-film technologies more than crystalline silicon technologies and especially amorphous silicon which showed a -33% reduction in the spectral photocurrent when a dust concentration of 8.5 mg/cm2 was applied. In comparison, the crystalline silicon and CIGS technologies showed -28.6% reductions at the same dust density.

QASEM H;  BETTS Thomas R.;  MUELLEJANS Harald;  ALBUSAIRI H;  GOTTSCHALG Ralph; 

2013-03-22

Kuwait University

JRC67240

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC67240,