Investigation of performance degradation by airborne dust particles accumulated on photovoltaic modules in Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract Airborne dust accumulation on open-air photovoltaic modules reduces the transparency of solar cell glazing in dry weather and results in a considerable lessening of the photovoltaic module's capacity to transform sunlight into electricity. This experiment studied how airborne dust on a solar PV module affects open circuit voltage, short circuit current, maximum power, Fill Factor, and module efficiency at different times of the year. The dust accumulation occurs naturally outdoors, and all the parameters are measured in an indoor setup at 25°C and 1000 W/m2 irradiance from June to November 2015 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The highest dust deposition density is 23.76 gm/cm3 obtained in November and the measured efficiency loss is above 27% for that day depending on the weather conditions and dust accumulation. From the I-V curve analysis, the obtained curve is nearly identical for clean and dusty photovoltaic panels. Dusty panel curves capture a smaller area, reducing energy production. The current reduces significantly for the dusty module, resulting in a power output of 172–232 W compared to 235–238 W for the clean module. The obtained results elaborately demonstrate how dust accumulation significantly reduces the efficiency of solar cells.