Technical and economic study of the sand and dust accumulation impact on the energy performance of photovoltaic system in Algerian Sahara

In this work, experimental studies were carried out to study in detail the impact of sand and dust on the electrical performance of photovoltaic modules in the Adrar region. For this, a comparison between two identical photovoltaic systems of 7 kWp each (PV17 and PV67) was carried out, the PV17 is cleaned regularly and the PV67 is cleaned infrequently. The experiment results reveal a significant impact of sand and dust accumulation on the electrical performance of the systems. The energy losses just after exposure to sandstorms are 7.37 kWh (1.45% of total production in 07 days of operation and two days of sandstorms), for dust accumulation they are 2.2 kWh, 3.2 kWh, 5.13 kWh, and 4 kWh after 6, 11, 18 and 23 days of operation respectively. The results show that cleaning PV systems immediately after sandstorm days can significantly reduce energy losses. For dust accumulation works, cleaning once every 20 days allows the PV systems to have energy reduction by 1.60%. The economic study carried out in this work shows that PV systems cleaning in the Adrar region is financially profitable with capacities greater than 20 kWp and energy gain greater than 2.74 kWh.

Automated summary

Experimental studies were conducted to investigate the impact of sand and dust on the electrical performance of photovoltaic modules in the Adrar region. A comparison between two identical photovoltaic systems revealed that sand and dust accumulation significantly affect the electrical performance. The results showed that cleaning after sandstorms and regular cleaning every 20 days can reduce energy losses.