Impact of the 2019-2020 Australian Black Summer Wildfires on Photovoltaic Energy Production

Air pollution produced by the Australian Black Summer wildfires caused extreme haze events across New South Wales (NSW). We analyzed 30-minute resolution energy data from 160 residential PV systems in NSW from 6 November 2019 to 15 January 2020. A percentile data analysis technique was adapted to derive a mean reduction rate for PV energy generation with PM2.5. The mean power reduction rate for PV systems was approximately $-12.5\% \pm 2.2\%$ per $100\ \mu\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{m}^{3}$ of PM2.5 for airmass 1.0. The energy loss for residential PV systems was estimated as $39.8\pm 7.9$ GWh, equating to a worst-case financial impact of $9.27 \pm 1.85$ million AUD. This work aims to help inform PV system planning and energy storage options of new PV systems; and raise awareness of the impact of wildfires and air pollution on solar PV.