Solar panel performance can be impacted when panel surfaces are coated with substances like dust, dirt, snow, or ice that scatter and/or absorb light and may reduce efficiency. As a consequence, time and resources are required to clean solar panels during and after extreme weather events or whenever surface coating occurs. Treating solar panels with chemical coatings that shed materials may decrease the operating costs associated with solar panel maintenance and cleaning. This study investigates three commercial coatings for use as self-cleaning glass technologies. Optical and thermal properties (reflectivity, absorption, and transmission) are investigated for each coating as well as their surface wettability and particle size. Incoming solar radiation was continuously monitored and snow events were logged to estimate power production capabilities and surface accumulation for each panel. In terms of power output, the commercial coatings made little impact on overall power production compared to the control (uncoated) panels. This was attributable to the overall high transmission, low absorption, and low reflection of each of the commercial coatings, making their presence on the surface of solar panels have minimal impact besides to potentially shed snow While the coatings made no observable difference to increase power production compared to the control panels, the shedding results from video monitoring suggest both the hydrophilic or hydrophobic test coatings decreased snow accumulation to a greater extent than the control panels (uncoated). Controlling the wettability properties of the solar panel surfaces has the potential to limit snow accumulation when compared to uncoated panel surfaces.

当太阳能电池板表面涂有灰尘、污垢、雪或冰等物质时，太阳能电池板的性能可能会受到影响，这些物质会散射和/或吸收光并可能降低效率。因此，在极端天气事件期间和之后或无论何时发生表面涂层，都需要时间和资源来清洁太阳能电池板。用脱落材料的化学涂层处理太阳能电池板可以降低与太阳能电池板维护和清洁相关的运营成本。本研究调查了三种用作自清洁玻璃技术的商业涂层。研究了每种涂层的光学和热性能（反射率、吸收率和透射率）以及它们的表面润湿性和粒度。持续监测传入的太阳辐射并记录下雪事件，以估计每个面板的发电能力和表面积累。在功率输出方面，与对照（未涂层）面板相比，商业涂层对整体功率产生的影响很小。这归因于每种商业涂层的整体高透射率、低吸收率和低反射率，使得它们在太阳能电池板表面的存在除了潜在的降雪之外影响很小，而涂层对增加发电量没有明显的影响与控制面板相比，视频监控的脱落结果表明亲水或疏水测试涂层比控制面板（未涂层）在更大程度上减少了积雪。