ANALYSIS OF THE SOILING RATE OF TWO PV TECHNOLOGIES IN FLORIANÓPOLIS

Abstract

Concern about the performance of photovoltaic (PV) systems grows proportionally with the advancement of technology and the need to generate energy from renewable sources. Among the factors that affect PV production is the soiling over the modules’ surface. The loss due to soiling deposits can directly compromise the performance of the system as well as shorten its useful life. The main objective of the present study is to analyze in detail the soiling rates of two technologies installed in the Fotovoltaica-UFSC laboratory, in the city of Florianópolis-SC, from August 2020 to October 2021. As a result, for the technology of multicrystalline silicon (p-Si), an average soiling rate of 0.62% was obtained and for cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology, a soiling loss of 1.11%, about 0.49% difference between the two technologies. The results also show that the system was affected by the start of a construction work adjacent to the study site, which resulted in an increase of 0.86% on the soiling rate for p-Si and 0.89% for CdTe in relation to the period before the construction works. Finally, it is important to emphasize that the soiling rate for the city of Florianópolis is relatively small compared to results published in the literature for other locations in Brazil. Finally, it should be noted that the soiling rate is affected not only by weather conditions, but mainly by the environmental characteristics of the installation site.