Investigating the optical impact of an effective time-dependent dust accumulation layer on the optoelectronic performance of monocrystalline solar cell

Recently, the utilization of renewable energy system, specifically photovoltaic systems, showed a booming trend in various applications. However, the impact of different environmental effects on the photovoltaic (PV) cells performance may influence the technical utility and the economic feasibility of the system. Such environmental impacts include; temperature, humidity and dust accumulations. Dust accumulation on the glass surface covering the front side of PV modules/cells can cause significant optical losses by forming backward and forward scattering layers. This can cause a fully non-transparent layer that can lead to a partial/full shading effect. In the current study, we propose a modified SCAPS model using a Mono-crystalline PV cell to demonstrate the dust accumulated layer thickness by considering it as an effective medium with time-dependent thickness variation. Following the proposed model, we are capable of estimating the expected efficiency degradation with respect to time under continuous dust accumulations. Perfect matching between our proposed model and experimental measurements was observed. Additionally, the efficiency degradation curves with respect to dust accumulations were plotted and compared with the experimental data; where the short circuit current dropped by 54.54% when the dust layer thickness layer reached 33.5 µm, with nearly fixed open-circuit voltage.