Degradation in Energy Yield of Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant due to Soiling Effect

Renewable energy resources are the future of the world. Solar photovoltaic energy conversion is one such type of clean and sustainable energy resource. Solar photovoltaic power plant’s performance is directly dependent on the sun’s incoming solar radiation availability and its intensity. Solar energy conversion of photovoltaic power plants is limited by local climatic parameters such as temperature, wind, humidity, dust deposition, etc. and geographical factors of latitude, longitude, etc. Accumulation of dust (soiling) on panels causes a considerable loss of output power in solar photovoltaic power plants. Dust accumulation on solar panels causes transmission loss due to absorption and scattering of the incident light, which affect the electricity generation or efficiency of solar panels. In this paper, the performance of a 5 kVA photovoltaic power plant installed at the Centre of Excellence in Renewable Energy Education and Research, University of Lucknow (New Campus) is investigated on the basis of the collected data of two reference modules. One module was cleaned daily whereas the other was left for the deposition of dust throughout the study period. The data analysis shows a large variation in the efficiency and produced electrical output power of the solar photovoltaic power plant. The study is very useful for predicting the performance of the solar photovoltaic power plants in composite climatic conditions.