IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/106251.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Spectral nature of soiling and its impact on multi-junction based concentrator systems

Author

Listed:
  • Fernandez, Eduardo F.
  • Chemisana, Daniel
  • Micheli, Leonardo
  • Almonacid, Florencia

Abstract

Soiling, which consists in the dust, dirt and particles accumulated on the surface of conventional or concentrator photovoltaic modules, absorbs, scatters, and reflects part of the incoming sunlight. Therefore, it reduces the amount of energy converted by the semiconductor solar cells. This work focuses on the effect of soiling on the performance of multi-junction (MJ) cells, widely used in concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) applications. Novel indexes, useful to quantify the spectral impact of soiling are introduced, and their meanings are discussed. The results of a one-year experimental investigation conducted in Spain are presented and are used to discuss how soiling impacts each of the subcells of a MJ cell, as well as in the cell current-matching. Ideal conditions for the mitigation of soiling are found in blue-rich environments, where the higher light intensity at the shorter wavelengths can limit the impact of soiling on the overall production of the CPV system.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernandez, Eduardo F. & Chemisana, Daniel & Micheli, Leonardo & Almonacid, Florencia, 2019. "Spectral nature of soiling and its impact on multi-junction based concentrator systems," MPRA Paper 106251, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:106251
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/106251/1/MPRA_paper_106251.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/106251/2/MPRA_paper_106251.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pérez-Higueras, Pedro & Ferrer-Rodríguez, Juan P. & Almonacid, Florencia & Fernández, Eduardo F., 2018. "Efficiency and acceptance angle of High Concentrator Photovoltaic modules: Current status and indoor measurements," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 143-153.
    2. Fernández, Eduardo F. & Almonacid, Florencia & Garcia-Loureiro, Antonio J., 2015. "Multi-junction solar cells electrical characterization by neuronal networks under different irradiance, spectrum and cell temperature," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P1), pages 846-856.
    3. Sarver, Travis & Al-Qaraghuli, Ali & Kazmerski, Lawrence L., 2013. "A comprehensive review of the impact of dust on the use of solar energy: History, investigations, results, literature, and mitigation approaches," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 698-733.
    4. Ruiz-Arias, J.A. & Terrados, J. & Pérez-Higueras, P. & Pozo-Vázquez, D. & Almonacid, G., 2012. "Assessment of the renewable energies potential for intensive electricity production in the province of Jaén, southern Spain," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2994-3001.
    5. Kaldellis, J.K. & Kokala, A., 2010. "Quantifying the decrease of the photovoltaic panels’ energy yield due to phenomena of natural air pollution disposal," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 4862-4869.
    6. Fernández, Eduardo F. & Talavera, D.L. & Almonacid, Florencia M. & Smestad, Greg P., 2016. "Investigating the impact of weather variables on the energy yield and cost of energy of grid-connected solar concentrator systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 790-801.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Conceição, Ricardo & González-Aguilar, José & Merrouni, Ahmed Alami & Romero, Manuel, 2022. "Soiling effect in solar energy conversion systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Antonia Sônia A. C. Diniz & Tulio P. Duarte & Suellen A. C. Costa & Daniel Sena Braga & Vinicius Camatta Santana & Lawrence L. Kazmerski, 2022. "Soiling Spectral and Module Temperature Effects: Comparisons of Competing Operating Parameters for Four Commercial PV Module Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-18, July.
    3. Fernández-Solas, Álvaro & Micheli, Leonardo & Almonacid, Florencia & Fernández, Eduardo F., 2021. "Optical degradation impact on the spectral performance of photovoltaic technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saidan, Motasem & Albaali, Abdul Ghani & Alasis, Emil & Kaldellis, John K., 2016. "Experimental study on the effect of dust deposition on solar photovoltaic panels in desert environment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 499-505.
    2. Tanesab, Julius & Parlevliet, David & Whale, Jonathan & Urmee, Tania, 2018. "Energy and economic losses caused by dust on residential photovoltaic (PV) systems deployed in different climate areas," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 401-412.
    3. Gómez-Amo, J.L. & Freile-Aranda, M.D. & Camarasa, J. & Estellés, V. & Utrillas, M.P. & Martínez-Lozano, J.A., 2019. "Empirical estimates of the radiative impact of an unusually extreme dust and wildfire episode on the performance of a photovoltaic plant in Western Mediterranean," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1226-1234.
    4. Pankaj Borah & Leonardo Micheli & Nabin Sarmah, 2023. "Analysis of Soiling Loss in Photovoltaic Modules: A Review of the Impact of Atmospheric Parameters, Soil Properties, and Mitigation Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-26, December.
    5. Song, Zhe & Liu, Jia & Yang, Hongxing, 2021. "Air pollution and soiling implications for solar photovoltaic power generation: A comprehensive review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    6. Darwish, Zeki Ahmed & Kazem, Hussein A. & Sopian, K. & Al-Goul, M.A. & Alawadhi, Hussain, 2015. "Effect of dust pollutant type on photovoltaic performance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 735-744.
    7. Mina Nezamisavojbolaghi & Erfan Davodian & Amal Bouich & Mouhaydine Tlemçani & Oumaima Mesbahi & Fernando M. Janeiro, 2023. "The Impact of Dust Deposition on PV Panels’ Efficiency and Mitigation Solutions: Review Article," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-19, December.
    8. Karim Menoufi, 2017. "Dust Accumulation on the Surface of Photovoltaic Panels: Introducing the Photovoltaic Soiling Index (PVSI)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-12, June.
    9. Fernández-Solas, Álvaro & Micheli, Leonardo & Almonacid, Florencia & Fernández, Eduardo F., 2021. "Optical degradation impact on the spectral performance of photovoltaic technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    10. Almonacid, Florencia & Fernandez, Eduardo F. & Mellit, Adel & Kalogirou, Soteris, 2017. "Review of techniques based on artificial neural networks for the electrical characterization of concentrator photovoltaic technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 938-953.
    11. Micheli, Leonardo & Caballero, Jose A. & Fernandez, Eduardo F. & Smestad, Greg P. & Nofuentes, Gustavo & Mallick, Tapas K. & Almonacid, Florencia, 2019. "Correlating photovoltaic soiling losses to waveband and single-value transmittance measurements," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 376-386.
    12. Saura, José M. & Chemisana, Daniel & Rodrigo, Pedro M. & Almonacid, Florencia M. & Fernández, Eduardo F., 2022. "Effect of non-uniformity on concentrator multi-junction solar cells equipped with refractive secondary optics under shading conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PC).
    13. Rehman, Shafiqur & El-Amin, Ibrahim, 2012. "Performance evaluation of an off-grid photovoltaic system in Saudi Arabia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 451-458.
    14. Abolhosseini, Shahrouz & Heshmati, Almas & Altmann, Jörn, 2014. "A Review of Renewable Energy Supply and Energy Efficiency Technologies," IZA Discussion Papers 8145, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Zhang, Minhui & Zhang, Qin & Zhou, Dequn & Wang, Lei, 2021. "Punishment or reward? Strategies of stakeholders in the quality of photovoltaic plants based on evolutionary game analysis in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    16. Alkharusi, Tarik & Huang, Gan & Markides, Christos N., 2024. "Characterisation of soiling on glass surfaces and their impact on optical and solar photovoltaic performance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    17. Fabiana Lisco & Farwah Bukhari & Soňa Uličná & Kenan Isbilir & Kurt L. Barth & Alan Taylor & John M. Walls, 2020. "Degradation of Hydrophobic, Anti-Soiling Coatings for Solar Module Cover Glass," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    18. Huang, Pengluan & Hu, Guoqiang & Zhao, Xiaodong & Lu, Luyi & Ding, Honggang & Li, Jianlan, 2022. "Effect of organics on the adhesion of dust to PV panel surfaces under condensation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    19. Aina Maimó-Far & Alexis Tantet & Víctor Homar & Philippe Drobinski, 2020. "Predictable and Unpredictable Climate Variability Impacts on Optimal Renewable Energy Mixes: The Example of Spain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-25, October.
    20. Enaganti, Prasanth K. & Bhattacharjee, Ankur & Ghosh, Aritra & Chanchangi, Yusuf N. & Chakraborty, Chanchal & Mallick, Tapas K. & Goel, Sanket, 2022. "Experimental investigations for dust build-up on low-iron glass exterior and its effects on the performance of solar PV systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PC).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    soiling transmittance; spectral effects; multi-junction solar cells; outdoor performance; concentrator photovoltaics.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:106251. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.