Journals
Online ISSN: 2521-0246 | Print ISSN: 2523-0573
Archives
Volume 1 Number 6 June 2017
Effect of Dust on the Performance of Photovoltaic System (A Case Study of Quaid-E-Azam Solar Park Bahawalpur, Pakistan)
Pages: 73-79Authors: Zeshan Abbas, Khanji Harijan, Pervez Hameed, Farman Bhayo
Abstract
The process of transfer of radiation from the shining surface of the photovoltaic module is adversely affected by the accumulation of dust carried by air. This research work is directed to investigate the effect of the dust particles accumulated on the surface of polycrystalline photovoltaic modules. In this research two polycrystalline modules were used by the string equipped with twenty (20) and out of those two modules, one was exposed for three months of summer season in natural atmosphere with regular cleaning at Quaid-e-Azam Bahawalpur Park, Pakistan. During this period, a series of systematic measurements related to different densities were performed. This study shows that a noticeable difference was seen between the different parameters of production of both clean and dirty modules. This study also provides information about percentage loss for different densities of dust. The densities of dust accumulated on the surface of the PV module for June, July and August were 0.786 mg / cm2, 0.681 mg / cm2 and 0.601 mg / cm2 respectively. The results obtained from this study show that accumulation of dust has strong effects on the performance of PV modules. These results also show that average output power of polycrystalline modules used in this study is 19% less as compared to pure-type modules of the same type. It was estimated that the modulating efficiency of the module (? clean - ? dirty) for the polycrystalline module was 3%. Moreover, it is concluded that dust has a great impact on the power and efficiency of the photovoltaic module production.
