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Energy
EnergyProcedia
Procedia158 (2019) 000–000
00 (2017) 483–489
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
10th
International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018), 22-25 August 2018, Hong Kong,
th
10 International Conference on Applied Energy
China(ICAE2018), 22-25 August 2018, Hong Kong,
China
Experimental Study on the Effect of Dust Deposition on
Experimental Study on
The 15th International the Effect
Symposium of Dust
on District Deposition
Heating and Cooling on
Photovoltaic Panels
Photovoltaic Panels
Assessing the feasibility
Yingya Chena,b,*, Yanfeng Liua,b
a,b, ofZhijun
,
using the
Tian a,b heat demand-outdoor
, Yu Donga,b , Yong Zhoua,b ,
temperature function
Yingya Chen forLiu
*, Yanfeng a long-term
a,b
district
, Zhijun Tian
a,b
a,b
heat
, Yu Dong
a,b
a,b
,demand forecast
Yong Zhou a,b
,
Xiaowen Wanga,b, Dengjia Wanga,b
a,b,c Xiaowen Wang , Dengjiab Wang
a
StateI.Key
Andrić
Laboratory of*,
Green Pinaain, P.
A.Building Ferrão
Western
a
China, ,Xi'an
J. Fournier ., B. Lacarrière
University of Architecture
c
, O.
and Technology. Le710055,
Xi'an Corre c
China
a
a
State
b
Key Laboratory
School of Green
of Environment Building inEngineering,
and Municipal Western China, Xi'an
Xi'an University
University of Architecture
of Architecture andand Technology.
Technology. Xi'an
Xi'an 710055,
710055, China
China
IN+ Center
b
Schoolfor
of Innovation,
Environment Technology
and and Policy
Municipal Research
Engineering, - Instituto
Xi'an Superior
University of Técnico, Av.
Architecture and Rovisco Pais 1,
Technology. 1049-001
Xi'an Lisbon,
710055, China Portugal
b
Veolia Recherche & Innovation, 291 Avenue Dreyfous Daniel, 78520 Limay, France
c
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France
Abstract
Abstract
In recent years, PV is considered to be one of the main way to solve the current energy crisis. PV is generally built in exposed
Abstract
In recent
areas suchyears, PV isand
as deserts considered
wasteland.to And
be onetheof the mainofway
efficiency to solve
power the current
generation of PVenergy
is easycrisis. PVby
affected is the
generally built in exposed
dust accumulated on it.
areas such as expounds
The research deserts andthe wasteland. And the
"three factors" of efficiency
the effect of power
dust ongeneration
PV, namely of PV is easyeffect,
shielding affected by the dust
temperature accumulated
effect on it.
and corrosion
District heating networks are commonly addressed in the literature as one of the most effective solutions for decreasing the
The research
effect, then anexpounds
efficiencytheevaluation
"three factors"
method of for
thephotovoltaic
effect of dustcells
on PV, namely shielding
is proposed. Finally, theeffect,
fieldtemperature
experimentseffect
showand
thatcorrosion
with the
greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. These systems require high investments which are returned through the heat
effect,
increasethen an efficiency
of dust evaluation
density, the method
short-circuit for photovoltaic
current, open-circuit cells is proposed.
voltage, and outputFinally,
power the field
of the PVexperiments
both decrease.show
Thethat with
dust withthea
sales. Due to the changed climate conditions and building renovation policies, heat demand in the future could decrease,
increase
density ofof10
dust
g/mdensity, the short-circuit
2 can reduce the maximum current,
power open-circuit
of the PV byvoltage,
about and
34%.output
In thepower
initialof the PV
stage both
of PV decrease.
dust The dustdust
accumulation, with
hasa
prolonging the investment return period.
density
the greatest g/m2 can
of 10impact on reduce the performance.
its output maximum power of the PVthe
In addition, bydust
about 34%. In
density andthethe
initial stage ofefficiency
conversion PV dust accumulation, dust has
have better nonlinear
The main scope of this paper is to assess the feasibility of using the heat demand – outdoor temperature function for heat demand
the greatest As
correlation. impact on itsaccumulation
the dust output performance. In addition,
density gradually the dustthe
increases, density and the conversion
PV conversion efficiencyefficiency
gradually have better When
decreases. nonlinear
the
forecast. The district of Alvalade, located in Lisbon (Portugal), was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665
correlation.
dust density As the dust
increases to accumulation density
a certain extent, the PVgradually increases,
conversion efficiencythetends
PV conversion
to be stable.efficiency gradually decreases. When the
buildings that vary in both construction period and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
dust density increases to a certain extent, the PV conversion efficiency tends to be stable.
renovation scenarios were developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
©compared
2019 The with results from a dynamic heatLtd.
demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
Copyright ©Authors.
Selection and 2018 Published
Elsevier
peer-review Ltd. by Elsevier
Allresponsibility
under rights reserved. of the scientific committee of the 10th International Conference on Applied
Theisresults
This an openshowed
accessthat when
article onlythe
under weather change is license
CC BY-NC-ND considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection
Energy and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10 International Conference on Applied
(ICAE2018). th
Peer-review
(the error inunder
annualresponsibility
demand was of lower
the scientific
than 20%committee of ICAE2018
for all weather – Theconsidered).
scenarios 10th International
However,Conference on Appliedrenovation
after introducing Energy.
Energy (ICAE2018).
scenarios, the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
Keywords: Shielding effect; Temperature effect; Corrosion effect; Conversion efficiency
The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the
Keywords: Shielding effect; Temperature effect; Corrosion effect; Conversion efficiency
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and
renovation scenarios considered). On the other hand, function intercept increased for 7.8-12.7% per decade (depending on the
coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and
improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
Cooling.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-18729058297
* E-mail address:author.
Corresponding Tel.: +86-18729058297
chenyingya@126.com
Keywords: Heat demand;
E-mail address: Forecast; Climate change
chenyingya@126.com
1876-6102 Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1876-6102 Copyright
Selection and © 2018
peer-review Elsevier
under Ltd. All of
responsibility rights reserved. committee of the 10th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018).
the scientific
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018).
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of ICAE2018 – The 10th International Conference on Applied Energy.
10.1016/j.egypro.2019.01.139
484 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 483–489
2 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

1. Introduction

Photovoltaic solar cells module industry has grown rapidly in the past few decades. In 2017, the world's newly
installed solar energy capacity exceeds 85 GW. Solar energy as an alternative to conventional energy which have
drawn much attention worldwide [1]. Solar photovoltaic (PV) cells are devices that use the photovoltaic effect of
semiconductors to convert the energy carried by light electromagnetic radiation into electrical energy [2]. Due to its
green, high-efficiency and renewable characteristics, it is considered to be one of the main ways to solve the current
energy crisis. Photovoltaic power plants require massive grounds, so they are generally built in open areas such as
deserts and wastelands. In these places, surrounding areas are empty, the general configuration of the ground surface
is mostly sandy soil, so the PV surface is very easy to be covered with dust, especially in stormy weather. Therefore,
it is very important to study the effect of dust on the operating characteristics of photovoltaic systems and improve
the efficiency of photovoltaic power generation.
M.M.Fouad et al.[3]analyzed the various factors that affect the performance of photovoltaic panels, such as the
environment, photovoltaic system, installation, cost factors, etc. It was found that the accumulation of dust, shadows
and pollutions are the main environment impact factors. Due to the presence of dust and dirt, part of the sunlight
may have been blocked and unable to be received by the PV panels. That results in a big loss of solar cell power
generation. A typical annual dust reduction factor is 93%. For 100W photovoltaic modules, the typical operating
power is only 93W because of the accumulation of dust. Motasem Saidan et al. [4]taken Baghdad city as an
example, the losses caused by dust accumulation on photovoltaic surface was quantified through experiments. The
results showed that, under natural exposure conditions, the performance of PV decrease 6.24%, 11.8%, 18.74%,
daily, weekly, and monthly. Hassan AH et al.[5]found that, under natural exposure conditions, the performance of
PV decrease 33.5% to 65.8%。Furthermore, Miller Jet. et al.[6]taken a comparative study of three identical PV
systems was conducted in a commercial office park in Los Angeles. The results showed that the annual system
losses due to dust pollution reached to 5%. Based on this, Al-Hasan AY et al. [7] showed that the consequences of
dust accumulation on the PV surface, mainly affect the PV's absorption and reflection of sunlight.
The studies above mainly focused on the effect of the PV power generation reduced by dust accumulation,
neglected the influence principles, so they cannot make targeted improvements on dust covered PV panels. The
studies first propose the three factors which influence the most, shielding effect, temperature effect and corrosion
effect. Base on the three factors, the evaluation method of photovoltaic cell efficiency is put forward. Finally, the
effect of dust density on the U-I, P-U performance curve, power generation efficiency and filling factor of PV is
obtained through experimental study.
Nomenclature

Isc Short circuit current [A]

Ipmax Optimum operating current [A]
Pmax Maximum output power point[W]
Pin The power of incident light [W]
Voc Open circuit voltage[V]
Vpmax Optimum operating voltage [V]
η Conversion efficiency

2. Methods of Dust Deposition on Photovoltaic Panels

2.1. Influence principles

The impact on PV is shown in three factors when dust landed on the surface of photovoltaic panels. First is
shielding effect. In general, the upper structure of photovoltaic panel is glass cover-plate which made of toughened
glass with transmittance over 91%. When the dust accumulated on the glass cover-plate, the dust obscured the light
irradiating PV, so that the transmission of glass cover plate weakened and the actual amount of solar radiation
received by PV is reduced. When the solar light spreads to the PV covered dust, some of the solar light intensity △
 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 483–489 485
Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 3

E1 is absorbed by the dust and turns into heat, another part of the light intensity △E2 is scattered on the surface of
the dust, only a part of light intensity △E3 is injected into the glass cover plate and received by PV. The energy of
entering the glass cover plate is reduced by △E1+△E2-△E3 this is the reason why the PV photoelectric effect
weakened.
The second is the temperature effect. The dust on the PV can cause change in the form of heat transfer. The
existing heat balance model of the PV modules is established under the condition of without dust. However, affected
by the dust, the heat balance has changed in the PV panels actually put into use. Because of the presence of dust,
some of the cells is blocked and cannot work properly, then the electric current of the shielding cells is reduced, as
shown in Fig.1. When the cell operating current is less than the entire PV array operating current, the cell voltage
ends in a reverse bias state. Then the cell becomes the load of other photovoltaic cells, consumes the power to
converted into heat energy to make temperature of the PV increase gradually [8]. Usually the limit of a single PV
cell reverse bias is 25W, if higher than the limit, it will be easy to form hot spots. Hot spots will not only affect the
power generation efficiency of PV, but also damage the whole PV system and cause irreparable damage.

Fig. 1. The hot spot effect on PV array

Finally, the corrosion effect. Dust particle size is very small, generally in between 0.001~0.01 mm. From the
point of view of chemical composition, atmospheric dust is mainly oxides, such as SiO 2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, Na2O, CaO,
MgO, TiO2. Among them, SiO2 is the highest, accounting for 68%~76% [9]. As the time grows, the glass cover
plate which mainly consisted of silica can react with acid or alkali. Then the surface of the glass cover plate
becomes uneven and the diffuse reflection increased. So the propagation uniformity of the solar light in the glass
cover plate is damaged, and the PV generating capacity is affected.

2.2. PV performance evaluation approach

I-V and P-V characteristic curves can reflect the PV power generation status and are an important indicator to
measure the power generation performance of PV modules. The output characteristics of PV have a non-linear
characteristic, and the output is affected by solar radiation, ambient temperature and load. Only at a certain output
voltage value, the output power of the PV array can reach the maximum value. At this time, the operating point of
the PV array reaches the highest point (P max) of the output power voltage curve is shown in Fig. 2. When the PV
surface accumulates dust, the PV working state will deviate from the maximum power point, results in a drop in
output power efficiency and an income reduction of power generation system.

Fig. 2. Performance diagram of solar cells

486 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 483–489
4 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

The other two important parameters for evaluating photovoltaic performance are conversion efficiency and fill
factor (FF). Conversion efficiency is the efficiency of PV to convert absorbed solar energy into electricity. It is a
crucial factor in evaluating the performance of solar cells. It is related to various factors such as sunshine conditions,
battery materials, particle temperature, radiation environment, and PV temperature.
Pmax

 100% (1)
Pin
The FF is the ratio of the maximum power of the solar cell to the product of the open circuit voltage and the short
circuit current and is an important parameter for evaluating the PV output characteristics. The higher the value, the
closer the output characteristics of the PV are to the rectangle and the higher the photoelectric conversion efficiency.
Dust can affect the acceptable light intensity of the PV surface, which in turn affects the FF.
Pmax
FF  (2)
Voc I sc

3. Experimental investigations

3.1. Experiment description

Photovoltaic experiments were set up to study the effect of dust on photovoltaic power generation efficiency.
Four polysilicon PV modules were selected for the experiments.
PV is divided into experimental group and control group. In the experimental group, PV is arranged with dust of
different thicknesses and weights. As a control group, the PV is in a clean state. The experimental site is shown in
Fig. 3. Three groups of dust of different quality were measured by electronic balance, and the dust was evenly
covered on the PV surface of the experimental group. So we got three different groups of dust covering density:
10g/m2, 20 g/m2 and 30g/m2.

Fig. 3. Experimental group and control group

3.2. Experimental layout

A weather station and data logger monitors the solar radiation, outdoor temperature and PV array temperature.
Solar panel detector records voltage, current and power. Fig. 4 gives the schematic diagram of test instrument
layout.

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of test instrument layout

 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 483–489 487
Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 5

3.3. Experimental Results

As shown in Fig. 5, the average surface temperature of clean PV and dusty PV are 32.5 °C and 33.5 °C, with a
difference of 1.0 °C. Dust causes the cooling effect of the PV panel to weaken, resulting in the increase of PV
surface temperature and the reduction of power generation efficiency.
42
With dust Without dust

39

36
Temperature(℃)

33

30

27

7:00 9:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00

Time(hh:mm)

Fig. 5. Effect of dust on PV surface temperature

The dust with a covering density of 10g/m2, 20 g/m2 and 30g/m2 was set on the three PV surface respectively. By
adjusting the resistance of the variable resistance box, the corresponding current under the different partial pressure
of PV is obtained. As shown in Fig. 6, it can be seen that the presence of dust causes the output performance of the
photovoltaic cell to drastically decrease, and the dust with a density of 10 g/m2 causes the short circuit current of the
PV and the open circuit voltage drops by about 26% and 12%. Indicating that dust has a greater influence on the PV
short circuit current and a smaller influence on the open circuit voltage. It is worth noting that with the increase of
dust density, the decreasing range of short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage decreases, indicating that dust has
the greatest impact on PV output performance in the initial stage of PV dust accumulation. At this stage, cleaning
the dust on the PV surface effect most obviously.
1.4
0 (without dust)
10 g/m2
1.2
20 g/m2
30 g/m2
1.0

0.8
I(mA)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0 1 2 3 4 5
U(V)

Fig. 6. U-I curve of PV under different dust densities

As shown in Fig. 7, the dust with a density of 10 g/m2 reduces the maximum power of the PV by about 34%, and
the greater the dust density, the smaller the maximum power of the PV. Besides, with the increase of dust density,
488 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 483–489
6 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

the highest point of power gradually moves to the left, that is, the output voltage and current value of PV's
maximum output power are gradually decreasing.

3.5
0 (without dust)
3.0 10 g/m2
20 g/m2
30 g/m2
2.5

2.0
P(W)

1.5

1.0

0.5

0 1 2 3 4 5
U(V)

Fig. 7. P-U curve of PV under different dust densities

As shown in Fig. 8, when the dust density on the PV surface is 10g/m2, the conversion efficiency is extremely
reduced, and the conversion efficiency is reduced by 30%. By numerically fitting the dust density and conversion
efficiency, it is found that they have better nonlinear correlation. With the increase of dust density, the conversion
efficiency of PV gradually decreases, but the decrease is gradually decrease. When the dust density increases to a
certain amount (70g/m2), the conversion efficiency will tend to be stable.
18

15
y=12.3*exp(-x/17.4)+4.2

R2=0.96
12
ƞ(%)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
ρ(g/m2)

Fig. 8. ρ-η curve

Fig. 9 shows the effect on FF at different dust densities. When the dust density of PV is 10g/m 2, the FF decreases
by about 3%. With the increase of dust density, the FF decreases. When the dust density increases from 10g/m 2 to
40g/m2, the decrease of FF is the largest. When the dust density reaches 60g/m2, the value of FF will gradually
stabilize to a constant, that is, the effect of dust on the FF is maximized.
 Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 483–489 489
Yingya Chen et al. / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 7

0.42

0.41

0.40

0.39

FF
0.38

0.37

0.36

0.35
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
ρ(g/m2)

Fig. 9. ρ-FF curve

4. CONCLUSIONS

The study first proposed the three factors of dust impact on photovoltaics, shielding effect, temperature effect and
corrosion effect. Then an efficiency evaluation method for photovoltaic cells is proposed. Finally, the effect of dust
on photovoltaic was studied through experiments.
 As the dust density increases, the short circuit current, open circuit voltage and output power of the PV are
all reduced. The dust with a density of 10 g/m2 can reduce the maximum power of the PV by about 34%.
 Dust has the greatest impact on PV output performance in the initial stage of PV dust accumulation. At this
stage, cleaning the dust on the PV surface effect most obviously.
 The PV conversion efficiency and FF decrease with the increase of dust density, and the dust density and the
conversion efficiency have better nonlinear correlation. With the increasing of the density of the dust, the PV
conversion efficiency gradually decreases. When the dust density increases to a certain extent, the PV
conversion efficiency tends to be stable.

Acknowledgements

We extend our gratitude to the Funds supports of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No.
(Nos. 51590911, 51508443), and the national key research projects (No.2016YFC0700400).

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