Quantification of PV Power and Economic Losses Due to Soiling in Qatar

Amr Zeedan, Abdulaziz Barakeh, Khaled Al-Fakhroo, Farid Touati and Antonio S. P. Gonzales
Additional contact information
Amr Zeedan: Department of Electrical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar
Abdulaziz Barakeh: Department of Electrical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar
Khaled Al-Fakhroo: Department of Electrical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar
Farid Touati: Department of Electrical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar
Antonio S. P. Gonzales: Department of Electrical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Soiling losses of photovoltaic (PV) panels due to dust lead to a significant decrease in solar energy yield and result in economic losses; this hence poses critical challenges to the viability of PV in smart grid systems. In this paper, these losses are quantified under Qatar’s harsh environment. This quantification is based on experimental data from long-term measurements of various climatic parameters and the output power of PV panels located in Qatar University’s Solar facility in Doha, Qatar, using a customized measurement and monitoring setup. A data processing algorithm was deliberately developed and applied, which aimed to correlate output power to ambient dust density in the vicinity of PV panels. It was found that, without cleaning, soiling reduced the output power by 43% after six months of exposure to an average ambient dust density of 0.7 mg / m 3 . The power and economic loss that would result from this power reduction for Qatar’s ongoing solar PV projects has also been estimated. For example, for the Al-Kharasaah project power plant, similar soiling loss would result in about a 10% power decrease after six months for typical ranges of dust density in Qatar’s environment; this, in turn, would result in an 11,000 QAR/h financial loss. This would pose a pressing need to mitigate soiling effects in PV power plants.

Keywords: photovoltaic (PV); standard test conditions (STC); Middle East and North Africa (MENA); soiling losses; dust density (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3364/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3364/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3364-:d:519794

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().