Experimental investigation on the condensation characteristics and self-cleaning law of hydrophilic/super-hydrophilic dusty surfaces of bifacial photovoltaic panels

Zhengming Yi, Qi Tao, Xueqing Liu, Linqiang Cui, Jianlan Li and Luyi Lu

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 251, issue C

Abstract: Dust deposition can significantly reduce the conversion efficiency of bifacial photovoltaic modules. In order to solve this problem, the condensation characteristics of bifacial photovoltaic panels with hydrophilic and super-hydrophilic surfaces are studied. The kinetical models of condensation liquid and particles are established, and their dynamic interactions are analyzed. The self-cleaning mechanisms of hydrophilic and super-hydrophilic surfaces are revealed. The results indicate that condensate on hydrophilic surfaces primarily forms droplets condensation, with a small amount of film-like condensation. In contrast, super-hydrophilic surfaces exhibit only film-like condensation. The head of droplet condensation has a slight self-cleaning power. The increased thermal resistance caused by the film-like tail prolongs the condensation cycle, thereby inhibiting the self-cleaning process. When transmissivity drops to approximately 65 % after PV dust accumulation, dust particles reduce the hydrophilic surfaces condensation cycle by about 25 %. Under the condition of dust deposition at the photovoltaic site, the transmissivity recovery values for bifacial photovoltaic modules are below 6.21 % for hydrophilic surfaces and 2.00 % for super-hydrophilic surfaces, respectively. Super-hydrophilic surfaces exhibit inferior self-cleaning performance compared to hydrophilic surfaces. These results provide theoretical support for solving the problem of bifacial photovoltaic panels dust accumulation.

Keywords: Solar energy; Bifacial photovoltaic modules; Condensation; Self-cleaning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125010766
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:251:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125010766

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123414

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 ().