Impact of dust and temperature on energy conversion process in photovoltaic module

Abstract

The impact of the photovoltaic module temperature and natural dust deposition on the module front surface on the photovoltaic system performance was investigated. The study was conducted in the city center of Krakow, Poland, characterized by high pollution and low wind speed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the photovoltaic module power output decrease and energy conversion loss as a function of the dust deposition mass and cell operating temperature. The results show a significant decrease in photovoltaic efficiency when the mass deposition or temperature increases. The maximum mass deposition observed for exposure periods of one week on a single module exceeds 480.0 mg and results in an efficiency loss equal to 2.1%. The results that were obtained enable the development of a correlation for the efficiency loss caused by dust deposition which is desired by the system designers.