Experimental investigation of soiling impact on PV module performance in Yanbu Al Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia

Khaled S. AlZahrani

Renewable Energy, 2023, vol. 216, issue C

Abstract: For many years, photovoltaic (PV) modules have seen widespread use as one of the most effective solutions to meet the growing demand for clean energy. However, compared with other power generation technologies, PV modules still face operational challenges, especially in industrial cities and the harsh environmental conditions of arid coastal regions. This study examines the effects of dust, sand grains and soiling characterisation on the efficiency of PV modules under different environmental conditions. The researcher used PV modules of two different technologies (Mono-Si and Poly-Si), two different tilt angles (10° and 24°), and two different surface conditions (clean and soiled) for their experiments. The study was conducted over a period of two years in Yanbu, an industrial city on the western coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was the first study of its kind in this city. The main findings indicate that the more the PV module was able to capture solar radiation, the less it resisted soiling effect. The mono-Si module outperformed the poly-Si module by 13.7% on average for both clean and soiled modules over the period of the study. However, the losses in power output due to the impact of soiling on the poly-Si modules were less on average by 11% when compared to the mono-Si modules. The overall average power losses for both mono-Si and poly-Si modules were lower by around 40% when installed at the 24° tilt angle. The study of dust particles' morphology and chemical compositions, along with the collected environmental data, confirmed that the dust-induced shade effect could contribute to the soiling impact on PV modules.

Keywords: Photovoltaic; Soiling effect; Solar panel performance; Tilt angle; Dust characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148123010315
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:216:y:2023:i:c:s0960148123010315

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2023.119117

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().