PV-soiling field-assessment of Mars™ optical sensor operating in the harsh desert environment of the state of Qatar

We report on the field assessment of the Mars (TM) optical soiling sensor performance for PV-soiling measurement under harsh conditions of a desert environment. Mars (TM) was installed in a hot, sunny, and dusty climate in the Outdoor Test Facility, managed by Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute, located in Doha (state of Qatar). Mars (TM) is a compact system, easy to install at different geographical sites, and it is designed to allow an efficient and cost-effective PV-soiling measurement with lower labor and operation & maintenance requirements, compared to conventional soiling measurement requiring conventional clean/soiled reference module pair method. Despite some discrepancy in the soiling measurements that were more pronounced during certain periods of time than the others, overall, a good fit was noticed between the two methods. A mismatch of less than similar to 0.1 %/day between the light transmission loss estimated by the Mars (TM) sensor and from a PV array is identified, and results are discussed accordingly. We demonstrate thus the feasibility of Mars (TM) to be deployed in different geographical locations and it's potential in measuring wide range of PV-soiling in commercial-scale PV installations.

Automated summary

This study reports on the field assessment of the Mars (TM) optical soiling sensor for PV-soiling measurement in a desert environment. The sensor demonstrated good performance in the hot, sunny, and dusty climate of Qatar, with a good fit between the Mars (TM) sensor and the conventional method. The findings demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the Mars (TM) sensor for measuring PV-soiling in different geographical locations and commercial-scale installations.