Effectiveness of Rain Cleaning on Artificially Soiled PV Modules With and Without Anti-soiling Coatings

A simple, inexpensive methodology for testing the effectiveness of rain cleaning on artificially soiled single-cell and multi-cell photovoltaic (PV) modules having anti-soiling coatings has been developed. Using an indoor soil deposition chamber and methodology as described in our previously publish...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) pp. 2869 - 2874
Main Authors:	Curtis, T., Sreenivash, V., Simpson, L., TamizhMani, G.
Format:	Conference Proceeding
Language:	English
Published:	IEEE 01-06-2019
Subjects:	anti-soiling coating photovoltaic modules rain cleaning rain gain soil deposition chamber soiling loss
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	A simple, inexpensive methodology for testing the effectiveness of rain cleaning on artificially soiled single-cell and multi-cell photovoltaic (PV) modules having anti-soiling coatings has been developed. Using an indoor soil deposition chamber and methodology as described in our previously published work, multiple layers of soil were deposited on to the glass surface of single-cell PV modules subjected to controlled temperature and humidity cycles. Three single-cell monocrystalline PV modules are reported in this study, two of which had different anti-soiling (AS) coatings applied to the surface and the third did not have any AS coating. The set-up and operation of a rain-simulator is described as well as the rain cleaning parameters the PV test modules were exposed to. The purpose of this work is to determine the effectiveness of anti-soiling coatings and cleaning techniques, so vendor claims can be quantitatively validated using an appropriately controlled soil deposition chamber and a rain simulating spray nozzle.
DOI:	10.1109/PVSC40753.2019.8980742