PG1995
Active Member
Hi
I was having a discussion with someone and that someone was of the opinion that solar panels shouldn't be used in countries where dust is prevalent assuming no manual cleaning or self-cleaning method is used. It seems plausible that dust or any other impurity accumulated on the panel itself or too much dust in the environment would affect the efficiency of panels.
A monocrystalline panel is optimistically 25% efficient. It means that average insolation of 1000 W/m^2 would produce 250W. I googled to get some estimate about how much efficiency is affected due to dust etc. This webpage says, "That loss may range as high as 25% in some areas according to the National Renewable Energy laboratory. Individual dealers have reported losses as high as 30% for some customers who failed to ever clean their panels". I have also been through two papers [3] and [4] but couldn't get any clear estimate. According to [4], the efficiency is greatly affected by dust.
Thank you for your help.
Regards
PG
References and helpful links:
1: https://www.solar-facts-and-advice.com/solar-energy.html
2: https://www.solar-facts-and-advice.com/solar-panel-cleaning.html
3: https://www.academia.edu/4117648/Ef...oltaic_Performance_Review_and_Research_Status
4: https://www.academia.edu/3037876/Effect_Of_Dust_On_The_Performance_Of_Solar_PV_Panel
I was having a discussion with someone and that someone was of the opinion that solar panels shouldn't be used in countries where dust is prevalent assuming no manual cleaning or self-cleaning method is used. It seems plausible that dust or any other impurity accumulated on the panel itself or too much dust in the environment would affect the efficiency of panels.
A monocrystalline panel is optimistically 25% efficient. It means that average insolation of 1000 W/m^2 would produce 250W. I googled to get some estimate about how much efficiency is affected due to dust etc. This webpage says, "That loss may range as high as 25% in some areas according to the National Renewable Energy laboratory. Individual dealers have reported losses as high as 30% for some customers who failed to ever clean their panels". I have also been through two papers [3] and [4] but couldn't get any clear estimate. According to [4], the efficiency is greatly affected by dust.
Thank you for your help.
Regards
PG
References and helpful links:
1: https://www.solar-facts-and-advice.com/solar-energy.html
2: https://www.solar-facts-and-advice.com/solar-panel-cleaning.html
3: https://www.academia.edu/4117648/Ef...oltaic_Performance_Review_and_Research_Status
4: https://www.academia.edu/3037876/Effect_Of_Dust_On_The_Performance_Of_Solar_PV_Panel