A building integrated solar PV surface-cleaning setup to optimize the electricity output of PV modules in a polluted atmosphere

Abstract

The performance of PV modules is significantly influenced by environmental factors, particularly soiling, which can be exacerbated by the presence of dew. This study aims to investigate the morphological changes caused by dew on dust and proposes a novel automated water-based cleaning system to remove dew-induced dust deposited on PV modules. The experiments were conducted under the climatic conditions of Islamabad, Pakistan, using poly-PV modules. The results revealed that the soiling losses at tilt angles of 23°, 33°, and 43° were 16.20%, 14.12%, and 11.64%, respectively. The newly proposed cleaning system utilizes flat fan nozzles to sprinkle water, and the power recovered after twenty days of effective cleaning was 12.07%, 11.40%, and 9.92% at tilt angles of 23°, 33°, and 43°, respectively. During the cleaning process, an average of 7.325 L of water was necessary to clean a surface area of 1.48 m2 of the solar PV module. Additionally, this cleaning procedure has a cooling effect on the PV modules, resulting in a reduction of the front surface temperature by 0.82 °C, 0.52 °C, and 0.45 °C at tilt angles of 23°, 33°, and 43°, respectively. The back surface temperature was also lowered by 1.2 °C, 0.74 °C, and 0.3 °C at the corresponding tilt angles. Furthermore, a financial evaluation of the proposed automatic cleaning system indicates its feasibility for both domestic and commercial-sized PV systems.