The effect of dust with different morphologies on the performance degradation of photovoltaic modules

This research investigated the effect of dust with different morphologies on the performance degradation of various photovoltaic (PV) technologies consisting of polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si), mono-crystalline silicon (mc-Si), and amorphous silicon (a-Si). Dust collected from two different locations, Babuin, Indonesia and Perth, Australia, was coated artificially onto the surface of glass of the PV modules. The analysis revealed that dust from Babuin was dominated by larger size and porous particles so that it passed more light than ones from Perth. Dust from Perth with angular and diagonal shapes had better optical property than that from Babuin featuring elliptical and spheroid particles. As a result, transmittance values of the two types of dust tend to balance out. For an equivalent amount, the effect of dust from Babuin and Perth on the performance degradation of each PV technology was similar. Furthermore, transmittance spectral curves of the two types of dust were fairly flat with respect to the wavelength range of pc-Si, a-Si, and mc-Si technologies. Consequently, dust from either Babuin or Perth have similar effects on the three PV technologies.