Journal
IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS
Volume 4, Issue 3, Pages 890-898Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2301895
Keywords
Performance evaluation; photovoltaic (PV) systems; soil coatings. standardized test methods; surface contamination
Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative under LPDP [25800]
- U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration [DE-AC04-94AL85000]
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The accumulation of soil on photovoltaic (PV) modules may introduce a spectral loss due to the color profile of the accumulated material. In order to compare the spectral and total losses experienced by a cell, soil analogs were formulated to contain common mineral pigments (Fe2O3 and gothite) with previously developed standard grime mixtures. These mixtures simulated a wide range of desert soil colors and were applied to glass test coupons. The light transmission through the deposited film was evaluated by UV/vis/NIR spectroscopy and by placing the coupon over a test cell in a 1-sun simulator and quantum efficiency test stand. Distinct peaks in the 300-600-nm range were observed by UV/vis/NIR spectroscopy corresponding to the Fe2O3 and gothite. Approximately analogous features were noted in the QE measurement. Overall comparisons were made by integrating the response of a soiled coupon relative to a clean reference. Soils rich in red pigments (Fe2O3) caused a greater integrated response than soils rich in yellow pigment (gothite). The yellow soils caused a greater attenuation in a specific region of the spectrum (300-450 nm), which may have significant implications to specific devices, such as multijunction and CdTe technologies.
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