Executive Summary : | The accumulation of dust and dirt on the glazing surfaces of solar PV modules reduce the efficiency of the solar PV system. It also increases the thermal resistance of the module. In this work, the analysis of dust accumulation and its effects on the performance of solar PV systems will be studied and some novel and innovative ideas for its mitigation would be developed and presented. This project aims to develop a model for the monitoring and estimation of soiling losses due to accumulation of dust on solar PV panels under different meteorological parameters. A laboratory prototype would be developed with primary focus on prediction and estimation of soiling losses (derating factor due to soiling). Using this hardware some experiments will be conducted to analyze the effects of dust accumulations under different scenarios. There are a number of cleaning methods available in the literature but these methods have certain limitations like less cleaning efficiency, high energy consumption, high capital cost, and effectiveness based on tilt angle. Hence, there is a need for development of some novel and innovative ideas to mitigate the effects of dust accumulation. The effects of dust accumulation will be analyzed using image processing. Here, a tag camera would be utilized to capture the images of PV modules under different scenarios. Based on the images, a deep learning-based algorithm for the classification of images under different scenarios would be developed and implemented to analyze the effects of dust accumulation. Moreover, an efficient technology based on SMA actuator would be developed to reduce the dust accumulation effects on solar PV modules. The proposed research is in line with the core issues to reduce the generation losses, maximize the energy production and performance, raise the PV capacity factors, minimize the cost of cleaning and to reduce the levelized cost of electricity, thereby respectively bringing economic benefit and minimize the financial risk of PV investors. The higher economic benefits attract more investors towards installation of new PV capacity and increases the share of PV renewable energy in the local as well as national markets. |