Impact of Dust for Solar PV in Indian Scenario

The facile conversion of sunlight into electricity of a solar-energy system is predominantly associated with the sun's irradiance as well as myriad environmental/climatic factors and photoactive material employed. However, the impact of other external factors associated with solar-rich geographical location (India) can be more influential on system performance. Among these, dust is oft-times an overlooked or understated issue that can be a major stumbling block in a solar panel's output performance. This chapter provides an insight of dust's impact on photovoltaic modules and evaluates mitigation of power loss and other performance parameters due to dust accumulation. In addition, this chapter analyzes dust's impact on the real-time data collected for 46 inverters with total 114819.30 kWh productions in a month with an average of 4416.13 kWh/day. The research further reviews key contributions to the understanding and performance effects of dust on solar module and presents an inclusive literature survey/assessment.