Soiling is an important and unpredictable factor that affects PV plant performance. Soiling is dependent on so many factors making it hard to quantify and accurately incorporate in PV prediction models and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). In this experiment, a comparison was done to establish the effect of soiling for 2 different PV plants installed at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) campus in Pretoria. The soiling rate for the performance ratio (PR) was 1.2 % per week on the 558 kWp DC single-axis tracker system and 0.4 % per week on the 202.3 kWp DC dual-axis plant over the period from June 2017 to August 2017. Soiling has a smaller effect on dual-axis systems as compared to single-axis systems due to the soiling accumulation mechanics and PV system elevation above ground level.
Reference:
Mienie, S., Basappa Ayanna, M., Pratt, L.E., Roro, K.T., and Diale, M. 2018. The effect of soiling on the PV performance ratio for different PV systems. 5TH Southern African Solar Energy Conference (SASEC 2018), Durban, South Africa, 25-27 June 2018, 7pp, URL: https://www.sasec.org.za/full_papers/42.pdf
Mienie, S., Basappa Ayanna, M., Pratt, L. E., Roro, K. T., & Diale, M. (2018). The effect of soiling on the PV performance ratio for different PV systems. SASEC 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10931
Mienie, S, Manjunath Basappa Ayanna, Lawrence E Pratt, Kittessa T Roro, and M Diale. "The effect of soiling on the PV performance ratio for different PV systems." (2018): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10931
Mienie S, Basappa Ayanna M, Pratt LE, Roro KT, Diale M, The effect of soiling on the PV performance ratio for different PV systems; SASEC 2018; 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10931 .
