Experimental study of the effect of temperature and removal of dust and sand on photovoltaic modules

The presence of dust in the sky of Iran causes dust deposition on the surface of photovoltaic panels and greatly affects the efficiency of them. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of dust, sand and temperature on the efficiency of photovoltaic panels.

Two similar panels were placed outdoors for 1 days to investigate the impact of dust. One of the panels is equipped with a cleaning system, but the other panel is without a cleaner. In the temperature setting, the control panel was equipped with a cooling system but the experimental panel was set without a cooling system. For investigation the effect of dust and sand, four similar panels were used, the control panel was in the clean condition, but the experimental panels were covered with dust and sand.

The results of this study indicate that dust deposition on the panel surface after 13 hour caused a decrease of 4% in voltage, 21% in current, 24% in power and an  increase of 4% in the temperature of the contaminated panel compared to the clean panel. The panel with the higher temperature has a reduction of 3% in voltage, 25% in current and 29% in power in comparison with the lower temperature panel. In addition, the voltage and current of the sandblasted panel decreased more than the voltage and current of the panel contaminated with dust.

According to the results of this study, dust deposition on the panel surface and increasing the panel temperature decrease the photovoltaic panel efficiency. Dust also has more impact on the photovoltaic panel than sand.