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2nd IEEE ENERGYCON Conference & Exhibition, 2012 / Advances in Energy Conversion Symp

CHARACTERIZATION OF PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS:


THE EFFECTS OF DUST

M. Catelani1, L. Ciani1, L. Cristaldi2, M. Faifer2, M. Lazzaroni3, M. Rossi2


1
Dipartimento di Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni - Universit degli Studi di Firenze - Firenze, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica - Politecnico di Milano - Milano, Italy
3 Dipartimento di Fisica, Universit degli Studi di Milano - Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT generation of sustainable and widespread energy, a key role


is played by photovoltaic (PV) cells, wind generators,
The renewable energy industry has been growing biomass plants and fuel cells. In particular, photovoltaic
remarkably in the last years and the Fukushima event has systems can be considered one of the most widespread
given a further incentive. In this context, solar radiation solutions with promising margins of improvement while
represents one of the most accessible and clean energy ensuring the generation of energy with low environmental
resources. For this reason the number and size of the impact.
photovoltaic (PV) systems is growing and consequently the Usually, the research and development of PV
amount of the investments and the related opportunities and technologies has been focused on radiation analysis,
risks are increasing. Therefore, the optimization of electrical efficient operating strategies, design and sizing of such
performances of PV plants and the assessment of their systems. In literature, e.g. [1], [2], [3], authors analyze the
quality and reliability are important for both the investors PV module in terms of panel modeling or I-V characteristic.
and the manufacturers. In a previous work some aspects, However some critical aspects and external conditions that
fundamental for the efficiency evaluation of PV panels, could affect the operation of the PV system are not
have been considered with particular attention to the considered in detail. An analysis concerning the influence of
presence of pollution and dust on the panel surface. On the dust on the performance of the PV modules has been
basis of the results so obtained, an experimental activity proposed in [4] by means of a Failure Modes, Effects and
based on the electrical characterization of some PV modules Criticality Analysis (FMECA) [5]. Such technique allows to
in presence of powder is proposed in this paper as evolution. identify the phenomena that lead to the PV system
The results, in terms of power analysis, were analyzed by degradation and failure, as well as to determine their
means of a statistical approach in order to identify the consequences and to devise methods for minimizing their
behavior of PV modules, with a given confidence interval. occurrence [6], [7].
The final aim is to use a PV panel as reference panel in Starting from these considerations, the effects of the
order to monitor the operating condition of a more complex pollution and dust on the electrical performances of the PV
PV plant. panels have been highlighted. The accumulation of dust and
debris may considerably reduce the efficiency. Ice and snow
Index Terms Photovoltaic cell, Failure analysis, can also affect the power output of the PV cells [8].
Reliability, Maintenance, Test equipment, Measurement. However, the efficiency reduction is dramatic only in case
of a thick snow layer as shown in [8].
1. INTRODUCTION Few studies analyzed the efficiency degradation due to
the presence of dust on the PV modules [9], [10], [11], [12].
Nowadays, energy-related aspects are becoming Current research of this phenomenon is limited since
extremely important. They involve, for instance, the rational powder deposition is influenced by environmental, weather
use of the resources, the study of the environmental impact conditions and design criteria. In fact, dust accumulation
of pollutant emissions and the exhaustion of non-renewable depends on different parameters like inclination of the PV
resources. For these reasons there is an increasing panel, kind of installation (stand alone or on tracker), wind
worldwide interest in sustainable energy production and direction, humidity, etc. In particular, both weather and
energy saving. Among the technologies involved in the design factors influence the dust accumulation process and

978-1-4673-1454-1/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE 45


related effects. A brief schematic representation of the fundamental part is constituted by the light source that has
factors that determine the settling of dust on the PV panels been properly designed and it has been described in a
is shown in Figure 1 [11]. previous paper [4]. It can be observed that a repeatable and
stable light source is mandatory in order to evaluate the PV
Glazing Characteristics panel performances degradation. Moreover, the overall
PV system tilt angle and including texture of the experimental activity has been performed under the
orientation PV panel surface and
coating characteristics hypothesis of measurement repeatability.
Starting from this assumption, a luminous source made
up by a matrix of 33 LED array has been designed and
Ambient Temperature and Dust settlement is
Humidity influenced by:
Wind velocity assembled. In particular, 9 arrays of 4 LED Oslon Star
White by OSRAM have been used. In order to obtain the
Dust Properties such as
required stability and repeatability, for the developed sun
Site Characteristics such
as local vegetation,
dust type, chemical, simulator it is sufficient to control the supply current and the
biological and cooling system. In fact, when this control is properly
pedestrian and vehicular
electrostatic property,
traffic, air pollution etc.)
shape, size and weight implemented the LEDs feature a good emitting stability.
Figure 1. Factors influencing dust settlement [11].
The luminous source has to be properly warmed-up before
starting the PV panel characterization in order to guarantee
A frequent cleaning is strongly recommended in order to the required stability. Complete V-I characteristics (or V-P
maximize the efficiency [13]. However, this approach can characteristics) have been obtained by using an electronic
be difficult to implement in complex systems or panels load developed by authors. The experimental setup has been
located in particular sites. In any case such activity leads to then located in a climatic chamber with controlled
a significant increase of the costs. In order to optimize the temperature and humidity. In this condition a good
maintenance activity of the system some parameters have to repeatability has been obtained and the results so collected
be monitored. have been evaluated as average of measurements performed
A possible solution is to observe the generated power in repetitive condition.
and to relate this value not only to the climatic conditions The voltage and the current at the PV panel terminals
(solar radiation and temperature) but also for the presence of have been measured by means of a Digital Acquisition
powder on the PV module. On the basis of this approach, board (DAQ board) featuring 16 bits ADCs capability. In
the paper is focused on the study of the electrical behavior particular, current has been transduced by using a shunt
of the PV panel in presence of dust depositions. In while the voltage has been reduced by means of a resistive
particular, several PV modules have been exposed to voltage divider. The experimental setup implemented in this
different environmental conditions and the corresponding work is represented by the simplified block diagram
efficiency degradations have been analyzed. The depicted in Fig. 2.
experiments have been designed and conducted in
laboratory using a sun simulator and a test chamber. The
collected data has been then analyzed following an approach PV Current and Electronic
based on the confidence interval analysis in order to define voltage load
Panel transducer
statistical information about the PV module population. The
proposed approach requires to monitor one or more
reference PV modules in order to infer the solar plant
Thermocouple
efficiency during normal operation. The final aim is to allow
PC
the monitoring activity without involving too expensive
complex control system composed by a large number of DAQs
sensors. The method permits to optimize the monitoring Figure 2. Experimental setup of the measurement system.
system by considering that the reference PV module could
represent, with a given confidence level, the behavior of the Being the electrical characteristic of the PV panel strictly
PV plant. dependent on the temperature, also the surface temperature
The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 the of the panel has been monitored. In particular, all
measurement set-up and the experimental activity are measurement have been performed forcing a temperature of
described. Section 3 contains a statistical analysis of the 31.2 C on the panel surface.
results and a detailed discussion is presented in Section 4. By using the proposed setup, polycrystalline PV panels
with dimensions 24.523.2 cm and active area of 2118.5
2. EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITY cm2 have been analyzed. The rated parameters of the
employed modules are summarized in Table I; in Figure 3 a
As aforementioned, the experimental activity has been picture of the PV panel is shown.
implemented by using a sun simulator and a test chamber. A

46
TABLE I: PV PANEL CHARACTERISTICS 0.04

PMAX 5W 0.035
VPM 17.5 V
IPM 0.285 A 0.03
VOC 21.3 V
ISC 0.31 A 0.025

Current [A]
0.02

0.015

0.01

0.005

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Voltage [V]

Figure 4. V-I characteristic of PV Panel.

0.5

0.45

0.4

0.35

0.3
Power [W]

0.25

Figure 3. A PV Panel. 0.2

0.15
In order to verify the repeatability of the measurement
system, ten complete characterization of a PV panel has 0.1
been performed. The average IV and the P-V 0.05
characteristics and the relative standard deviation (k = 3) are
reported in Figure 4 and Figure 5. It can be noticed that a 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
good repeatability of the system has been achieved. At the Voltage [V]
Maximum Power Point (MPP, the point of maximum on the Figure 5. V-P characteristic of PV Panel.
V-P curve) the relative standard deviation is 0.13%.
In order to verify the influence of the pollution on the PV
panel performances, a measurement campaign has been TABLE II: CONDITIONS OF EXPOSITION OF THE PV PANELS
carried out with a sample of 10 PV modules exposed to the
TIME OF CONDITIONS OF EXPOSITION
effect of environmental agents. In particular, PV panels have PANEL
EXPOSURE RAIN
ID
been exposed to different environmental conditions in order [days] INCLINATION
EXPOSITION
to consider the effect of the PV module inclination, the 1 34 HORIZONTAL NO
2 34 HORIZONTAL NO
exposition time and the rain as summarized in Table II. 3 34 HORIZONTAL NO
The PV panel has been characterized by using the 4 24 30 YES
measurement setup above described. In particular the I-V 5 24 30 YES
6 34 HORIZONTAL YES
curve of each module has been measured after the 7 34 HORIZONTAL YES
exposition to the environmental agents and after cleaning. 8 21 HORIZONTAL NO
As shown in [4], the effect of the dust can be quantified 9 21 HORIZONTAL NO
10 21 HORIZONTAL NO
comparing the decrease of the Maximum Power (MP)
before and after cleaning. For this reason the acquired I-V
curves have been analyzed in order to compute the MP
value.

47
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS TABLE IV: CONFIDENCE INTERVALS (CI) FOR CLEAN PANELS

CI LOWER LIMIT [W] UPPER LIMIT [W]


The selected PV panels belong to the same production %
process and the same production lot. Thus, the panels can be 95 0.4665 0.4866
considered as an homogeneous sample and it is possible to 98 0.4642 0.4889
99 0.4611 0.4920
evaluate the MP from a statistical point of view. In other
words, MP value can be considered as measurement of a
character on individual samples from a large population.
From the theoretical point of view some statistics can be 0.52
obtained by the sample. These can be used as starting point
0.51
for inferences about characteristics of the population from
which the sample was extracted. 0.50
In Table III the computed MP generated by the PV

MP Clean (W)
0.49
modules in dirty condition and after cleaning are reported.
0.48

C.I. 95%

C.I. 98%

C.I. 99%
TABLE III: MP FOR USED PANELS
0.47
# MPclean MPdirty
MPDecrease %
PANEL [W] [W] 0.46
1 0.4744 0.4573 3.6
2 0.4713 0.4427 6.1 0.45
3 0.4484 0.4181 6.8
4 0.5062 0.4887 3.5 0.44
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5 0.4700 0.4541 3.4 Panel Id
6 0.4699 0.4545 3.3
7 0.4680 0.4375 6.5 Figure 6. MP Clean Vs Confidence Interval as evaluated in TABLE IV.
8 0.4738 0.4562 3.7
9 0.4781 0.4663 2.5 In Figure 6 it can be observed that panels 4 and 10
10 0.5052 0.4937 2.3 present a MP value higher than the upper limits of the three
confidence intervals. It means that they could show, during
It can be observed that the power variations from the their operating life, better performance with respect to the
clean condition to dirty, for each panel, are bigger than the other elements of the sample. This situation could lead to
measurement system resolution. The power variation can be wrongly evaluate the state of cleanliness of the surface of
evaluated by means of the MP decrease reported in Table III the panels. This assumption is verified, for each of the
according to the formula: defined confidence interval, by the MP experimental values
assumed by the two panels after 24 and 21 days of exposure,
MPclean MPdirty respectively (Table III). On the other hand, panel 3 shows
MPDecrease % = 100 (1) the worst behavior of the samples both in clean and dirty
MPclean
conditions. Its MP value, evaluated in clean condition, is
lower than the lower confidence limit evaluated at 99%
As expected, all the panels present a reduction of the (Table IV).
generated power. It is important to highlight that the The table of exposure conditions (Table II) and the MP
exposure conditions have been randomly assigned to the decrease evaluation of Table III suggest to divide the dirty
panels. In order to avoid the effects of different ageing panels into four classes (as reported in Table V). We
factor due to the different expositions, the MP evaluations in suppose that the population of each class is normally
clean condition have been performed after the dirty one. distributed. For this reason we consider the mean value of
Starting from the previous statement and assuming that the class experimentally evaluated. The mean values of each
the MP values of the clean panels are normally distributed, class and the differences between class values in clean and
it is possible to evaluate the mean and the standard deviation dirty conditions are reported in Table V, where:
of sample results as 0.4765 W and 0.0058 W, respectively.
Starting from this sample character it is possible to define,
MPdirty MPclean
for different confidence levels, the confidence interval for MPdev = (2)
the mean of the population. In Table IV the Confidence MPclean
Intervals (CI) evaluated at 95%, 98% and 99% have been
reported. It can be noticed that classes 1 and 2 can be correctly
classified as dirty: in fact, their MPdirty values do not belong
to the widest confidence interval (99%) defined for the
population of clean panels.

48
TABLE V: PANEL CLASSIFICATION BASED ON FOUR CLASSES OF DIRTINESS Assuming a significance level 1- = 0.80, we have to
Exposition Condition of MPdirty accept or reject the hypothesis H0 evaluating the following
Class Panel MPdev
days exposition [W] test function:
No rain
1 34 1, 2, 3 0.4393 5.47%
horizontal
Rain x
2 34 6, 7 0.4460 4.89% T= (4)
horizontal s n 1
3 24 4, 5 Rain - tilt 30 0.4714 3.43%
No rain
4 21 8, 9, 10 0.4720 2.81%
horizontal where is the mean value of the clean panel, s is the
estimation of the standard deviation and n denotes the
On the contrary, the MPdirty values of the classes 3 and 4 number of samples of the class.
lead to consider the class panels as belonging to the The test of significance has been performed considering
population of clean panels. each of the four defined classes of dirtiness. Four values,
It is interesting to highlight that the differences between which we indicate with ti (i = 1, ...4), can be than computed
class values in clean and dirty conditions (evaluated by applying (4). The test has been performed comparing the ti
means of the values reported in column MPdev of Table V) values with the critical value tn-1,1- corresponding to the
evaluated for classes 3 and 4 are not negligible. The assigned significance level. The tn-1,1- values are - 1.061 for
classification mistake is mainly due to the presence in these the classes with three elements and - 1.376 for the classes
classes of the panels 4 and 10 which have the best with two elements. Thus, the classes 1 and 2 reject the
performances both in clean condition and in their class of hypothesis H0 while classes 3 and 4 accept the hypothesis
dirtiness. This condition is particular critical for class #3 H0. These results are summarized in Table VI.
because only two panels belong to it.
TABLE VI: TEST FUNCTION VALUES AND CRITICAL VALUES
The MPdev value of class 4 is the lowest among those
reported in Table V (it has been evaluated about 3%) even if Class ti tn-1,1-
its MPdirty is very close to that of class 3: this condition can 1 -3.267 -1.061
be explained considering that the panels belonging to the 2 -3.605 -1.376
class 4 of dirtiness have been exposed for 21 days and they 3 -0.297 -1.376
4 -0.401 -1.061
present better performances in clean condition.
In order to evaluate, in a statistical way, the
consideration reported above, it is possible to define a test of It is important to highlight that class 3 and 4 are considered
significance. The statistical hypothesis is related to the clean on the base of the statistical analysis but, from an
assumption: the panels belonging to the four classes of experimental point of view, they can be considered dirty.
dirtiness are clean. In this way we can implement a test Even if a MP reduction less than 4% cannot be considered a
procedure where each class of dirtiness can be associated to strong condition [13], the previous consideration leads to
a decision to accept or reject the aforementioned assert that we are falling in a second type error.
hypothesis. Considering as random the condition of The second type error can be evaluated by means of the
exposure of the panels, the MP values in clean and in dirty cumulative distribution function related to the hypothesis
conditions can be considered random and independent each test:
other. This condition is mandatory for the test construction.
The test is represented by the hypothesis H0 and the
alternative hypothesis H1 related to the dirty population
(
P Z > (xc x ) s / n 1( )) (5)

mean value x: where x assumes the value defined by the alternative


hypothesis of (3) and xc is the value corresponding to the
H 0 : x = 0.4765 W critical value tn-1,1-.
(3) The mean value of class 3 belongs to the interval defined by
H1 : x < 0.4765 W the critical value xc and the mean value of the clean panel: in
this condition equation (5) gives a very high second type
The threshold defines a particular region denoted as error (over 80%). The low capability of the test to identify in
critical region. It is well known, that by defining a critical a correct way the status of the panels of class 3 is due to the
region we assume the risk of falling in error. If we accept presence of the panel #4 in a very small class.
the statistical hypothesis H0 when it is not true, we fall in the This consideration highlight the role of the reference panel
second kind of error: its probability, conventionally denoted in the monitoring system. It must be carefully chosen paying
by , can be evaluated by considering the threshold value, attention to the characteristics of the sample respect to the
the assumed distribution and the size of the class [14]. assigned confidence level.

49
4. DISCUSSION Measurement, vol.60, no.5, pp.1613-1622, May 2011.
[2] Jeevandoss, C.R.; Kumaravel, M.; Kumar, V.J.; , "A Novel
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