Analysis of dust accumulation effects on the long-term performance of solar PV panels

Solar cells are the most common and important applications of solar energy. However, dust accumulation can have a very serious impact on the performance of Photovoltaic (PV) systems. Here, we investigated the dust and its influence on solar modules, both polycrystalline and monocrystalline. The specified site had four horizontally oriented 80 W PV modules. To mitigate the environmental effect, one of the two PV modules was intentionally kept dusty while the other was consistently cleaned. Over 90 days, measurements of PV performance and ambient factors were taken every 30 minutes. Time-based and normalized measurements were used to discuss how dust affects current, voltage, and power. Research revealed that the accumulation of dust led to a higher rate of power decline (30.48%) in polycrystalline PV modules compared to monocrystalline PV modules (14.1%). The current and power losses for monocrystalline PV modules ranged from 0.21 to 2.16 A and 13 to 56 W, respectively. When subjected to external conditions for an equivalent duration, polycrystalline PV modules had degradation rates ranging from 0.1 to 2.37 A in terms of current, and power losses ranging from 10 to 60.5 W, respectively. The results confirmed that polycrystalline surface characteristics significantly increase the amount of dust accumulation, which must be considered when designing all such solar arrays and testing for deployment. This finding provides a lesson for high PV maintenance strategy optimization, specifically in high dust operating environments, for continued PV energy.