TY - GEN
T1 - Effect of tilt angle on soiling of photovoltaic modules
AU - Cano, Jose
AU - John, Jim Joseph
AU - Tatapudi, Sai
AU - Tamizhmani, Govindasamy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.
PY - 2014/10/15
Y1 - 2014/10/15
N2 - Soiling on PV modules is known to reduce PV system performance, mainly in dry arid climatic conditions. Cleaning with water or other means may become an expensive solution to the problem. For the highest annual energy production from a fixed tilt PV system, the modules are typically installed at tilt angle close to latitude angle of the system's location. Soiling loss is an interplay between terrain of the installation, tilt angle, rain frequency and rain intensity. For un-cleaned arrays in certain dusty locations, it would be better to optimize the tilt angle for maximizing transmitted radiation to the cells by adjusting the tilt angle slightly higher which would in turn minimize the soiling loss. In this work, we have developed an inexpensive soiling station which evaluates soiling loss at different tilt angles (0°, 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 23°, 30°, 33°, 40°). For Mesa, Arizona (a hot-dry climate), the 0° tilt angle showed a 2.02% loss whereas 23° and 33° showed soiling loss close to 1% during the first three months of 2011.
AB - Soiling on PV modules is known to reduce PV system performance, mainly in dry arid climatic conditions. Cleaning with water or other means may become an expensive solution to the problem. For the highest annual energy production from a fixed tilt PV system, the modules are typically installed at tilt angle close to latitude angle of the system's location. Soiling loss is an interplay between terrain of the installation, tilt angle, rain frequency and rain intensity. For un-cleaned arrays in certain dusty locations, it would be better to optimize the tilt angle for maximizing transmitted radiation to the cells by adjusting the tilt angle slightly higher which would in turn minimize the soiling loss. In this work, we have developed an inexpensive soiling station which evaluates soiling loss at different tilt angles (0°, 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 23°, 30°, 33°, 40°). For Mesa, Arizona (a hot-dry climate), the 0° tilt angle showed a 2.02% loss whereas 23° and 33° showed soiling loss close to 1% during the first three months of 2011.
KW - insolation loss
KW - photovoltaic modules
KW - soiling
KW - solar cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84912137991&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84912137991&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925610
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925610
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84912137991
T3 - 2014 IEEE 40th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014
SP - 3174
EP - 3176
BT - 2014 IEEE 40th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 40th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014
Y2 - 8 June 2014 through 13 June 2014
ER -