Memorias de investigación
Communications at congresses:
EFFECT OF SOILING ON PV CONCENTRATORS: COMPARISON WITH FLAT MODULES.
Year:2008

Research Areas
  • Electric engineering

Information
Abstract
The effect of soiling in flat PV modules has been already studied, causing an averaged electrical output reduction near 4%. In principle, as far as soiling produces light scattering at the optical collector surface, the scattered rays in concentrator systems should be definitively lost because they cannot be focused on the receivers. While the theoretical study becomes difficult because the scattering is variable at different sites and due to different types of dust, it becomes easier to begin the monitoring of the real field performance of concentrators and then raise the following questions: how much affect the soiling to PV concentrators in comparison with flat panels?¿, ¿is the effect of the soiling related to the concentration level?¿ and ¿is the nature of the optics (reflective or refractive system) relevant in the obtained results?¿ Answers are a clue in order to predict the PV concentrator electrical performance and to establish how often the concentrators must be cleaned. A first and simple experiment is being carried at the IESUPM site, located in Madrid city, practically in downtown, consisting in four low-concentrators systems (2X, 10X, 20X and 40X), one high-concentrator system (250X) and one flat module. All systems have been measured when soiled and after cleaning, achieving different increases of ISC that are up to 26.2%, after 4 months without heavy rain, for the CPV systems when they are soiled in comparison with the 2-4% of the flat panel.
International
Si
Congress
33rd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference PVSC 33
960
Place
San Diego, California, USA
Reviewers
Si
ISBN/ISSN
978-1-4244-1641-7
Start Date
11/05/2008
End Date
16/05/2008
From page
991
To page
994
Conference proceedings
Participants

Research Group, Departaments and Institutes related
  • Creador: Grupo de Investigación: Integración de Sistemas e Instrumentos (ISI)
  • Departamento: Electrónica Física
  • Centro o Instituto I+D+i: Instituto de Energía Solar