Impact of heavy soiling on the power output of PV modules

Christian Schill; Stefan Brachmann; Markus Heck; Karl-Anders Weiss; Michael Koehl

doi:10.1117/12.893721

13 September 2011 Impact of heavy soiling on the power output of PV modules

Christian Schill, Stefan Brachmann, Markus Heck, Karl-Anders Weiss, Michael Koehl

Proceedings Volume 8112, Reliability of Photovoltaic Cells, Modules, Components, and Systems IV; 811207 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.893721
Event: SPIE Solar Energy + Technology, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Fraunhofer ISE is running a PV-module outdoor testing set-up on the Gran Canaria island, one of the Canary Island located west of Morroco in the Atlantic Ocean. The performance of the modules is assessed by IV-curve monitoring every 10 minutes. The electronic set-up of the monitoring system - consisting of individual electronic loads for each module which go into an MPP-tracking mode between the IV-measurements - will be described in detail. Soiling of the exposed modules happened because of building constructions nearby. We decided not to clean the modules, but the radiation sensors and recorded the decrease of the power output and the efficiency over time. The efficiency dropped to 20 % within 5 months before a heavy rain and subsequently the service personnel on site cleaned the modules. A smaller rain-fall in between washed the dust partly away and accumulated it at the lower part of the module, what could be concluded from the shape of the IV-curves, which were similar to partial shading by hot-spot-tests and by partial snow cover.

Citation Download Citation

Christian Schill, Stefan Brachmann, Markus Heck, Karl-Anders Weiss, and Michael Koehl "Impact of heavy soiling on the power output of PV modules", Proc. SPIE 8112, Reliability of Photovoltaic Cells, Modules, Components, and Systems IV, 811207 (13 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.893721

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