Quality Assurance from Laboratory to Field: Novel Test Solutions for Soiling-Prone PV Systems

Site-specific quality assurance, from laboratory to the field, is crucial for enhancing the performance and reliability of photovoltaic (PV) plants, especially in challenging environments with stress/loss factors like soiling, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, humidity or moisture ingress. The impact of soiling on power losses in PV installations, particularly in arid/desert areas, marine environments, and areas near mines or intense agriculture, underscores the necessity for proactive monitoring and quality control for such PV plants. Existing commercial soiling test solutions are not standalone devices while their output data (e.g. soiling ratio measurements), do not directly correlate with the overall impact of soiling on PV plant’s power output. In this paper, we present the development, prototyping, validation and first field results of two innovative solutions, “E-Dust” and “SoilRatio” developed in the framework of H2020 SERENDI-PV, leaping beyond the state-of-the-art in soiling-specific PV quality control. The advanced in-field assessments of soiling provided by these two novel tools are further complemented by a lab-based setup and protocol, developed by CEA, for (controlled) soiling testing, including PV design and cleaning optimization.