Selection of optimal wavelengths for optical soiling modelling and detection in photovoltaic modules

Micheli, Leonardo; Fernández, Eduardo F.; Muller, Matthew; Smestad, Greg P.; Almonacid, Florencia

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110539

Selection of optimal wavelengths for optical soiling modelling and detection in photovoltaic modules

Journal Article · Mon Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110539· OSTI ID:1660000

Micheli, Leonardo ^[1]; Fernández, Eduardo F. ^[1]; Muller, Matthew ^[2]; Smestad, Greg P. ^[3]; Almonacid, Florencia ^[1]

Univ. de Jaen (Spain)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sol Ideas Technology Development, San Jose, CA (United States)

Soiling impacts the photovoltaic (PV) module performance by decreasing the amount of light reaching the photovoltaic cells and by changing their external spectral response. Currently, the soiling monitoring market is moving toward optical sensors that measure transmittance or reflectance, rather than directly measuring the impact of soiling on the performance of photovoltaic modules. These sensors, which use a single optical measurement, are not able to correct the soiling losses that depend on the solar irradiance spectra and on the spectral response of the monitored PV material. This work investigates methods that can improve the optical detection of soiling by extracting the full soiling spectrum profiles using only two or three monochromatic measurements. Spectral transmittance data, measured with a spectrophotometer and collected during a 46-week experimental soiling study carried out in Jaén, Spain, was analysed in this work. The use of a spectral profile for the hemispherical transmittance of soiled PV glass is found to significantly improve the soiling detection, returning the lowest errors independently of the PV materials and irradiance conditions. In addition, this work shows that it is also possible to select the measurement wavelengths to minimize the soiling loss detection error depending on the monitored PV semiconductor material (silicon, CdTe, a-Si, CIGS and a representative perovskite). The approaches discussed in this work are also found to be more robust to potential measurement errors compared to single wavelength measurement techniques.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office; European Union (EU); European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1660000

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1778332

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5K00-76711; MainId:9372; UUID:ca880a99-6d8d-4810-9d77-6dd612574578; MainAdminID:13750

Journal Information:: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Journal Name: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells Vol. 212; ISSN 0927-0248

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Design, characterization and indoor validation of the optical soiling detector "DUSST" Fernández-Solas, Álvaro; Micheli, Leonardo; Muller, Matthew arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2011.06320	text	January 2020

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