Effect of Sand, Ash and Soil on Photovoltaic Performance: An Experimental Study

The outcome performance of Photovoltaic in hot and dusty regions is the primary question regarding the usage of PV. In this article, three types of PV panels (monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous) were tested. The investigation focused on the effect of variable sorts of dust and pollutants on the generated power. The degradation in the PV power due to subjected to solar radiation time was investigated. Different air pollutants were tested (red soil, ash, sand, brown sand), ant the effect of its accumulation on the generated power was analyzed. The obtained results show that a considerable reduction in PV power was measured. The reduction rate depends strongly on the pollutant type and accumulation quantity. Also, the power reduction was increased with time which reveals the effect of temperature on the panels' output. For comparison purposes, red soil has the highest reduction effect on mono and poly crystalline panels. The brown sand was the most effective pollutant on the amorphous panel outcome compared with other tested pollutants.