Abstract
Dust accumulation on the front glass of a photovoltaic module can cause significant reduction in its power output. The analysis of dust accumulation on mono-Si PV modules in outdoor conditions is presented in this article. Two monocrystalline-Si modules of same rating (50 Wp) were used to study the effect of dust accumulation on the surface of PV modules under different climatic conditions in East-Central India. It was observed that the power of dusty module was less compared to non-dusty module. The power drop occurred due to the reduction of photocurrent because of a decrease in solar irradiance passing through the dust-covered module glass. A dust-study setup consisting of a mounting structure and low-iron glass coupons was used to study the changes in light transmittance properties of module top glass due to dust deposition. The results showed that the highest reduction in transmittance occurred in the winter months of December 2020 and January 2021. The dusty module showed a maximum reduction of 24.29% in power compared to the clean module on 31 January 2021 at an irradiance of 805 W/m2. The short-circuit current density was the most severely affected parameter.
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Acknowledgements
Financial support for the experimental setup, received through Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, grant number DST/INSPIRE/04/2015/003204, is thankfully acknowledged. Authors thank Prof. J. N. Roy of IIT Kharagpur for providing glass samples and mounting arrangement for dust-study experiments. Authors thank Dr. Aritra Ghosh of University of Exeter, Penryn, UK, for providing useful inputs on dust-study setup. I would also like to thank Mr. Arif Khan (Junior Technical Superintendent) and Mr. Shravan Kumar Singh (PhD student) for helping in designing of the experimental setup.
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Baghel, N.S., Chander, N. (2023). Impact of Soiling on the Performance of Monocrystalline-Si Photovoltaic Modules Under Different Climatic Conditions in East-Central India. In: Sharma, D., Roy, S. (eds) Emerging Trends in Energy Conversion and Thermo-Fluid Systems. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3410-0_4
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