Experimental study on the impact of soiling on the modules temperature and performance of two different PV technologies under hot arid climate.

In this paper we conducted an experimental study to evaluate the impact of soiling on the temperature and electricity production of two photovoltaic technologies (Poly-Si and CdTe) under a hot semi-arid climate of Morocco. For this purpose, two modules -from each technology-were exposed for one year where one is cleaned every day and the other is left to accumulate soiling on its surface. In parallel, the electrical parameters, the weather data and the modules temperature were monitored using high precision instruments. Results show that the Poly-Si technology is highly affected by soiling in comparison to the CdTe where the measured daily Soiling ratio (SR) can reach 0.70 and 0.73 respectively. This values lead to a drop on the energy production of 15% for the Poly-Si and 13%. Regarding the modules temperature (Tm) results show that soiling has an impact on increasing the temperature for both technologies, but the Poly-Si module is more affected than the CdTe one, where the daily average temperature difference between the clean and the soiled modules is around 1.5 °C and 1.3 °C for both technologies, respectively.

Degradation and performance analysis of a monocrystalline PV system without EVA encapsulating in semi-arid climate.

The objective of the current paper is to evaluate the performances drop of a photovoltaic system composed of a new PV module conception without EVA encapsulation. After three years of operation under harsh atmospheric condition at Green Energy Park research facility, in the mid-south of Morocco, the system shows an energy drop around 1.8kWhe in one of its strings. For this reason, an inspection (in-situ and at the lab level) to evaluate and detect the source of this energy drop has been done using the IV-Curve, IR thermal and Electroluminescence. Results show that the Performance Ratio (PR) of the affected string reaches 13%. Besides, two modules from this last one showed a degradation rate (Rd) greater than 4.12 %. It has been found that the main cause of this energy drop is due to the presence of breakages and crack at the modules cells. Those deceases are caused by a bad manual cleaning, as well as, for the nature of the modules, without EVA protection against the mechanical shocks.