Soiling-induced transmittance losses in solar PV modules installed in Kathmandu Valley

• Published in: Renewables : wind, water, and solar Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Paudyal, Basant Raj, Shakya, Shree Raj, Paudyal, Dhan Prasad, Das Mulmi, Deependra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 14.08.2017; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Air pollution; Alternative energy sources; Atmospheric particulates; Dust; Dust storms; Economics and Management; Energy; Energy Policy; Energy resources; Energy sources; Energy Systems; Environmental management; Incident radiation; Laboratory tests; Modules; Original Research Article; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; Rain; Renewable and Green Energy; Renewable energy; Renewable energy sources; Renewable resources; Resource management; Soil degradation; Soiling; Solar cells; Solar collectors; Solar energy; Solar power; Transmittance; Transmittance loss; Water Industry/Water Technologies; Wind power generation; Wind speed; Air pollution; Soiling; Solar energy; Transmittance loss
• ISSN: 2198-994X; 2198-994X
• DOI: 10.1186/s40807-017-0042-z

Renewable energy sources are fast emerging as more reliable supplement of conventional energy sources. Among the various renewable sources, solar energy is most sought after in today’s world. Solar PV modules when installed in outdoor environments suffer from various factors which are generally unaccounted in laboratory testing. Energy generation from solar collectors is primarily dependent on the amount of incident radiation on their surfaces. Soiling on modules is known to reduce the transmittance of incident rays to solar cell and cause significant output power degradation. Soiling is closely associated with the various factors such as module tilt angle, site-specific climate, outdoor exposure period, humidity, wind speed, dust characteristics and material properties. This experimental work is aimed to study the transmittance losses encountered by solar PV modules and the corresponding power degradation. The experimental results show an alarming reduction in transmittance as high as 69.06% over the dry study period experiencing no rain. The power of dusty solar module decreases by 29.76% compared to the module cleaned on daily basis. Dust deposition density on the PV module accounted to 9.6711 g/m 2 over the study period.