Effect of pollution and dust on PV performance

International Journal of Civil, Mechanical and Energy Science (IJCMES) [Vol-3, Issue-4, July-Aug, 2017]
https://dx.doi.org/10.24001/ijcmes.3.4.1 ISSN: 2455-5304
www.ijcmes.com Page | 181
Effect of pollution and dust on PV performance
Khaleel I Abass1
, Dina S M Al-Zubaidi2
, Ali A K Al-Waeli3
1
*Mechanical Eng. Dept., University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq
Corresponding author e. mail: 20078@uotechnology.edu.iq
2
Al-Kawarzimi Engineering Collage, Baghdad University, Iraq
3
Ibn-Rusher College, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
Abstract—Photovoltaic or PV systems are one of the next
generation’s renewable energy sources for our world
energy demand. It’s a method of generating electrical
power by converting solar radiation into direct current
electricity. When light shines on a PV cell, it may be
reflected, absorbed, or pass right through. But only the
absorbed light generates electricity. An electrical field is
created near the top surface of the cell where these two
materials are in contact. The PV system affected highly by
the dust and pollutants accumulation on its surface as it
reduces the solar light reaches the cell; as a result reduce
the cell outcome.
In this experimental work, three types of Iraqi construction
materials (cement, plaster, and borax) were used as
pollutants to evaluate their effect on the PV cell
performance. The results reveal that borax has the lowest
impact on the cell current while plaster has the maximum
level. The output power and efficiency were influenced by
these impacts and plaster ranked the minimum efficiency
with about 25.8% reduction compared to clean cell.
Keywords—Borax, Cement, constructions pollutants,
dust, plaster.
I. INTRODUCTION
Recent years have shown the fragility of the world oil
situation, with prices fluctuating from above 140 US$ to
less than $ 30, causing economic troubles for both oil
exporters and importers [1]. If we add to this, burning
fossil fuels causes great harm to the environment due to
the emitted pollutants from the product of combustion,
both in power plants and vehicles [2, 3].
If the suffering of Iraqis from permanent power outages
was added to all that, and their need to operate millions of
generators working on diesel and gasoline, that cause very
high air pollution [4]. The only solution is to reduce
dependence on fossil fuels and increase the share of
renewable energies from energy production [5]. Iraq has
an excellent location as the sun shines for over 340 days a
year and strongly medium radiation from 240 W/m2
in
winter to 960 W/m2
at summer [6].
Photovoltaic is a renewable source of energy, which
converts the sunlight directly into electricity without
creating any air or water pollution. The heart of
photovoltaic system is a solid-stat device called a solar cell
[7]. Since the sunlight is endless and very abundant PV
cells have very high potential to be a primary source of
energy. There are many different types for the
photovoltaic, which became more efficient and cheaper
with R &D efforts. PV panels are usually placed on the
roof of the building. There are many environment factors
that can impact the PV efficiency for example humidity
[8], industrial waste [9], and air pollution (dust, fossil fuel
and grime) [10]. However, the environmental impact of the
environmental variables such as temperature, wind, and
humidity on the PV outcomes is very high compared to
any other renewable or non-renewable electricity system
[11]. Many researchers studied the effect of dust on
different types of photovoltaic cells and found the effect of
dust and pollutants in the studied areas. Table 1 shows
some studies that focused on the effect of dust and
pollutants on the performance of the solar cell.
Table.1: Some studies investigated the impact of dust accumulation on the PV performance
Ref. Year Location Work conditions Key findings
Goossens D
and Van
Kerschaever
[D]
1999 Belgium The impact of wind speed
and dust accumulation on
the PV cell performance
using wind tunnel.
Wind speed affects the PV cell performance
largely since the output reduction is greater in
high winds than in low winds. At the same
time, the wind affects the sedimentological
structure of the dust coating on the cell,
resulting in a higher transmittance (of light)
for coatings created during high winds.
Beheary
and Abdel-
2006 Egypt The dust accumulation
impact on the PV systems
The dust accumulation, the panel tilt angle,
and the panel orientation with respect to the

Moneim [E] performance dominant wind direction are the main reasons
for the reduction in glass normal
transmittance. The slope that generated the
best data points was 45° angle facing south.
Kaldellis
and Kokala
[F]
2010 Greece The performance of five
identical pairs of
photovoltaic panels
mounted on the surface
was studied in an urban
environment with
aggravated contamination.
the presence of dust considerably affects the
PV-panels’ performance even for a relatively
small dust deposition density of (~1 g/m2
)
may result in considerable energy loss up to 40
€/kWp on an annual basis.
Beattie et
al. [G]
2011 UK Numerical and analytical
models of dust
accumulation on PV
modules in dry weather
was studied and compared
to practical investigation
of dust accumulation on a
surface of glass.
The accumulation process can be described on
the basis of the size of the dust particles before
the exponential decay, which is the result of
particle aggregation.
Mekhilef et
al. [Q]
2012 Malaysia dust, humidity and air
velocity have been taken
into account
simultaneously
Each one of these three factors affect the other
Two. The effect of these factors should be
taken into consideration in parallel when
studying the PV performance..
El-Din et al.
[W]
2013 Egypt The effect of deposition of
air born suspends matters
on PV cell in harsh
climates located close to
the sea.
As the dust deposition density increased from
0 to 0.36 mg/cm2, the reduction in the PV
efficiency was up to 17.71%. During a testing
period of 30 days the average degradation in
the efficiency was 9.86%.
Kazem et
al. [C]
2014 Iraq A review about the
sources, properties, and
reasons of the Iraqi dust
storms and their effect on
the PV performance
In Iraq, the negative human activities
increased desertification and caused an
increase in sand and dust storms. The dust and
dust storms affect the PV modules
performance and reduced the generated
energy.
Kazem et
al. [B]
2015 Oman The effect of variable dust
properties on the PV yield
From the studied dusts, the dust from Sohar
and Saham has the higher negative effect on
the performance because of its properties. The
moisture content in these dusts caused this
negative action.
Chaichan et
al. [10]
2015 Iraq The effect of Iraqi winter
outdoor pollution and dust
conditions on PV yield
The exposure, even with a short period, to air
pollutants deteriorated the PV yield. The
polluted and dusty PV panel outcome was
declined about 12%, while the naturally
cleaned cell (by rain) lost about 8% compared
to the clean panel. The use of sodium
surfactant or alcohols preserves high rates of
the PV panels' performance.
Kazem and
Chaaichan
[A]
2016 Oman The dust physical
properties of six locations
in Oman
64% of the dust particles size ranged from 2 to
63 µm in diameter. There is no significant loss
of energy productivity due to the traceability
of a little surface of dust (less than 1 g / m²) on
the photovoltaic unit. The daily loss in PV

efficiency didn't exceed 0.05%. However,
after 3 month exposure to outdoor conditions
the efficiency reduced by 30-35%. It is
important to clean the PV panels in intervals
less than 3 month to reduce the energy loss.
Darwish et
al. [R]
2016 Malaysia A solar simulator was used
to investigate the effect of
calcium carbonate on a PV
module
The different masses of the distributed dust do
not affect the open circuit voltage of a PV
system, but it impact on the short circuit
current are large. The calcium carbonate has a
clear and sizable effect on short circuit current
and maximum power.
The research listed in the table above shows a clear effect
of dust on PV performance. In this study, the effect of
accumulation of building materials such as cement,
plaster and borax will be tested experimentally on the PV
cell performance.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The current study experimentally investigates the
performance of two identical pairs of photovoltaic (PV)
panels, the first being clean and the second being
artificially polluted with different, commonly met in
urban and other environments air pollutants. The PV-
panels under comparison are both operating under the
same environmental conditions, being nearby located and
adjusted at the same inclination. The effect of pollution
deposition on PVs’ power output and efficiency is
examined, considering also various pollutants’ mass
depositions on the PV-panels’ surfaces. Thee air
pollutants which are volatile materials from construction
processes that have higher concentrations in cities
(Cement, plaster and borax) were selected to investigate
their effect on PV-panels’ performance by finding the
efficiency of the PV in the case of each one of them.
Current and voltage would be measured in this
experiment in order to find the power of PV panel, and
then efficiency would be calculated using power and area
of PV panel by following equations (P = V.I , Efficiency
= P/A). Equipment’s used in the experiment are as
following:
 PV-panel.
 Lead-acid battery storage system.
 DC / DC charge controller (1 kW rated power).
 Electrical loads (lighting).
 Three pollutants (Cement, plaster and borax)
Fig. 1 represents the used instruments in the tests.
Fig.1: A photo of the used instruments in the experiments
Experimental Procedure
Three types of construction materials air pollutants
(Cement, plaster and borax) have been used with weights
of (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 grams). Av electrical circuit consist
of (control charge, lamp) has been connected PV panel
and switch on constant light that located above PV panel.
A multi-meter current and voltage was used to measure
the clean PV panel first. The tested pollutants were
distributed on the surface of PV panel on steps of 2 grams
each. The PV current and voltage were measured.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The influence of constructing materials accumulation on
the efficiency of solar PV panels was studied using indoor
solar simulator. A constant light radiation condition is
used by mean of lamp to overcome the variation that may
be experienced under the sunlight. The system of
measurements is consists of solar panel of area, voltmeter
for measurement of generating voltage and producing
current, a suitable load resistance, a charge control. The
electrical parameters like voltage and current have been
measured to study the effect of environmental air
pollutants on PV panels. The effect of air pollutant can be
quantified by comparing the efficiency of panel exposed
to air pollutant and clean PV panels.
Fig. 2 shows the effect of construction pollutants
accumulation on the current of the studied cell. Plaster
caused a high reduction in the PV current compared to the

other pollutants. Also cement accumulation reduced the
cell current highly. Borax caused a relatively lower
impact on the cell current. These differences in the impact
rates of the studied pollutants refer to the substance
physical and chemical properties as clarified by refs. [18,
20].
Fig.2: The impact of pollutant accumulation on the PV
cell current
Fig. 3 represents the effect of the studied pollutants on the
PV cell voltage. The borax affected the cell voltage more
than the other pollutants while the cement impact was the
lower except when 10 grams were accumulated. The
reduction in the cell voltage was relatively limited where
the maximum reduction was 0.73%compare with a clean
cell voltage.
cell voltage
cell power
Fig. 4 depicts the impact of the studied pollutants on the
generated power. Plaster reduced the output power more
than the rest pollutants while borax power reduction was
the lower one. The cell output power influences by the
current and the voltage. The plaster current reduction was
high that caused this high reduction in power while the
borax current reduction then its power reduced little
compared to the other two substances.
cell efficiency
Fig. 5 declares the effect of the studied pollutants on the
PV cell resulted efficiency. The efficiency curves are
similar to the power curves as the cell was subjected to
controlled variables (radiation, humidity and air
movement). The physical and chemical properties of the
tested pollutants have a critical effect on the resulted
efficiencies. The results clarify that borax with it low
density and small particles size caused the lowers
degradation to the PV array outcomes. Plaster has
adhesion properties of its molecules causing its
aggregation and its accumulation that caused great impact
on the PV panels output. Cement affected the cell's I, V,
P, and efficiency.
IV. CONCLUSSION
In order for the PV cells to operate at maximum
efficiency without energy loss, the panels’ surfaces need
to be clean and allow free entrance of solar photons.
Pollution, dirt, dust and clouds block out the sun and have
the same effect on reducing energy generated. The recent
experimental study of the effect of three construction
pollutants (cement, plaster, and borax) on the parameters
of the solar module showed that these parameters are
sensitive to the dust and to its accumulation amounts on
the panel. The reduction of the performances of the
module can be over 25.8% (when plaster was
accumulated on the panel with 10grams weight). The tests
indicated the significant importance of the PV surface
cleaning to improve the economy benefit of the PV power
system.
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0 2 4 6 8 10
Current(amp.)
Pollutant concentration (gram)
Cement
Plaster
Borax
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
0 2 4 6 8 10
Power(watt)
Pollutants concentration (grams)
Cement
Plaster
Borax
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
0 5 10
Efficiency(%)
Pollutant concentrations (grams)
Cement
Plaster
Borax
11.74
11.76
11.78
11.8
11.82
11.84
11.86
0 2 4 6 8 10
Voltage(volt)
Pollutant concentration (grams)
Cement
Plaster
Borax

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