Abstract The photovoltaic (PV) power plants’ power generation is affected obviously by the cleanliness of the photovoltaic modules. The dust is the primary source causing the pollution. Natural dust deposition is affected by human activities and meteorological factors such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and PM10 concentration in the region where PV modules are installed. The research efforts so far have been focused on predicting PV power outputs, however, in the real operations the PV outputs can significantly deviate from the prediction due to the dust pollution which, unfortunately, has not been fully investigated. This paper, to the authors’ best knowledge, is the first research to analyze the dust composition and evaluate its impacts on the PV power outputs with the real field test data in East China Collected through a series of experiments completed in the lab of the Institute of Distributed Generation and Microgrid, Zhejiang University of Technology, in East China. A PV output forecasting model was set up first based on the irradiance and the component’s temperature. Then a complete meteorological and electrical data online monitoring system was developed for data acquisition. The morphology of the dust particles on the investigated photovoltaic modules was observed by a scanning electron microscope, and the composition of the dust particles was measured by X-ray fluorescence. The research found that the dust accumulated on the surface of photovoltaic modules tend to form clusters under the influence of rainfall which is one major cause on fast dropping PV outputs. The analysis shows the dust deposit mainly comprises of SiO2 and CaCO3. Further analysis indicates in East China, the average dust density on PV modules is 0.644 g/m2 in a week and consequently the dust reduces the PV output power by 7.4% one week. The research is of significance not only in terms of giving the real-data based analysis on dust properties deposited on PV panels, but also on revealing the relationship between power output attenuation and dust deposition, which helps improve the PV power output prediction accuracy and develop efficient cleaning strategies for photovoltaic modules.

中文翻译：

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华东地区扬尘和降雨对光伏节电影响的研究

摘要 光伏组件的清洁度对光伏电站的发电量有明显影响。粉尘是造成污染的主要来源。自然粉尘沉降受光伏组件安装地区的人类活动和气象因素如温度、湿度、风速和PM10浓度的影响。迄今为止的研究工作主要集中在预测光伏功率输出上，然而，在实际操作中，由于粉尘污染，光伏输出可能会显着偏离预测，遗憾的是，尚未得到充分研究。据作者所知，这篇论文，在浙江工业大学分布式发电与微电网研究所实验室完成的一系列实验收集，是第一个利用华东地区真实现场测试数据分析粉尘成分并评估其对光伏出力影响的研究，在华东地区。首先根据辐照度和组件温度建立光伏输出预测模型。然后开发了一套完整的气象电数据在线监测系统进行数据采集。通过扫描电子显微镜观察所研究的光伏组件上灰尘颗粒的形态，并通过X射线荧光测量灰尘颗粒的组成。研究发现，积聚在光伏组件表面的灰尘在降雨的影响下往往会形成簇状，这是导致光伏出力快速下降的主要原因之一。分析表明，粉尘沉积物主要由SiO2和CaCO3组成。进一步分析表明，华东地区，光伏组件一周平均粉尘密度为0.644 g/m2，因此粉尘使光伏出力一周下降7.4%。该研究不仅对光伏板沉积粉尘特性的真实数据分析具有重要意义，而且对于揭示功率输出衰减与粉尘沉积之间的关系，有助于提高光伏功率输出预测精度和发展。光伏组件的有效清洁策略。