Inspection of Photovoltaic Panel Surface Cleanliness Using Ratio of Power to Illumination Method

Abstract

Photovoltaic power generation is an important part of the development of green energy, and the dust deposited on the surface of photovoltaic panels can affect the power generation efficiency of photovoltaic power plants through a variety of ways. Therefore, the production needs to detect the surface cleanliness of photovoltaic panels to determine whether the cleaning work of photovoltaic panels is needed. There have been many methods to detect the cleanliness of the photovoltaic panel surface or the dust coverage on the photovoltaic panel surface. In this paper, we propose a ratio of power to illumination method to detect the cleanliness of photovoltaic panel surface from the power perspective with the help of the linear relationship between illumination and photovoltaic panel power generation. The ratio of power to illumination method needs to measure the power and illuminance at each time point under a fixed time difference, and use the ratio of power to illuminance to determine the size of the effect of dust on the photovoltaic panel and initially detect the cleanliness of the photovoltaic panel surface. The ratio of power to illumination method also introduces the ratio of unit illuminance power to specifically indicate the size of the impact of dust on photovoltaic panels, standardize the detection of photovoltaic panel surface cleanliness, and help for production practice with the help of the threshold value of the ratio.