Mitigation of Soiling and Assessment of PV Module Performance under IEC 60891 by Based-Brush and Based-Water Cleaning Methods Using

Abstract

In the front surface of PV modules, the soiling and dust is a major issue, especially in areas with high soiling rates, frequent dust, limited water supplies, and significant solar energy potential and appears to have a significant influence in output power. This study proposes an approach to mitigate the soiling, dust and assess the PV module performance under IEC 60891 by using of based-brush and based-water cleaning methods (CBB and CBW), which can significantly increase power generation and reduce the cost of operation and maintenance. Moreover, the CBB and CBW cleaning types help to improve the performance of PV modules. The cleaning factor shows that the overall electrical output power is approximately 3.09%, with an average value of 1.61% in cleaning based-brush and 1.49% in cleaning-based water, the CBB improve the total output power with 52% and CBW with 58%. The cleaning process affects, \({{I}_{{{\text{sc}}}}}~\) positively by approximately 2.49 and 2.24%, and the maximum output current \({{I}_{{{\text{mpp}}}}}\) with an overall cleaning factor of approximately 3.58%, where the average cleaning factors for CBB and CBW were 1.9 and 1.68%, respectively. The CBB showed good performance and significantly reduced the thickness of the dust layer accumulated on the module surface and removed a large portion of soiling. Therefore, a regular wet or dry cleaning of PV modules surface is essentially needed and the combination between the two methods is important to attempt the minimum costs and maximum power. From a sustainability perspective, this work demonstrates that the CBB method can be significantly utilized to reduce soiling losses in PV modules without using water. The study shows that CBW is an effective way to remove the bird dropping, thin dust and improve the output power.