A novel domino-like snow removal system for roof PV arrays: Feasibility, performance, and economic benefits

Abstract

Snow accumulation on PV modules hinders normal power generation which is a challenge for the wide-scope application of photovoltaics in snowy regions. In this paper, a domino-like snow removal system (DSRS) based on photovoltaics self-heating (PVSH) was designed and investigated to overcome this application challenge. The domino-like snow removal strategy is first proposed, whose core idea is to use the energy from uncovered PV modules to accomplish snow removal in PV systems string by string. The process is almost free of utility power consumption and is suitable for both off-grid and grid-connected PV systems. The principle of PVSH is explained and its long-term effect on PV modules was first verified by comprehensive experiments. The entire process of snow removal is physically modeled. A novel circuit topology and control flow were designed to implement the domino-like snow removal strategy. The 1st generation prototype of the DSRS was manufactured and two-year outdoor experiments were conducted to validate the snow removal performance. Furthermore, the economic benefits of DSRS were analyzed through detailed installation cost calculations and conservative snow effect projections. The experimental results demonstrate that long-term PVSH does not contribute to the performance degradation of PV cells. The DSRS shows high snow removal efficiency with extremely low power consumption compared to similar methods, which has been tested to have outstanding adaptability in handling different types of snow under complex climatic conditions. In addition to a convenient and low-cost installation, the payback period of the DSRS varies between 2.99 and 4.3 years according to the scale of PV systems. So the 25-year return on investment (ROI) of DSRS can reach up to 857.2 %. This paper presents a systematic work around the feasibility, performance, and economic benefits of the domino-like snow removal system and confirms it is an excellent solution to removing snow on PV modules and has great potential to promote PV deployment where the snow covers for a few months in winter.