Event-specific Dust-to-Power screening of aerosol dimming and potential soiling-monitoring priorities for northern China photovoltaics

Abstract Dust events motivate separate monitoring of atmospheric dimming and potential photovoltaic (PV) surface soiling. We developed Dust-to-Power as an event-specific monitoring framework across eight northern Chinese provinces. The CERES analysis covers 20–24 March 2023, a 5-day subset of the documented 19–24 March event. PV-area-weighted, all-aerosol global horizontal irradiance (GHI)-based product diagnostics were 10.30% and 10.40% for initial and adjusted specifications, not dust-only or observed PV generation losses. Bootstrap intervals describe sampling variability, excluding structural/model uncertainty. Separate dimming and post-event soiling-monitoring priorities direct irradiance checks and additional surface inspection, without estimating contamination probability, magnitude, or cleaning need. For this event, the ChinaPV 2020 footprint and adopted datasets, Ningxia ranked first and Shaanxi second across ten formulations. This stability applies within the event and does not establish a climatological provincial hierarchy.