The Effect of Dust on Solar Panels
It is dusty here in the desert. Last night as the summer monsoon began, and the first of the dust storms started, anyone with contact lenses probably did not enjoy the evening?s cool down. Even those of us with eyeglasses noticed the grit in the air. Do a Google search on ?haboob? if you want to see what we can expect in the days to come. The Arizona desert is made of dust which spends most of its time just lying there. Sometimes, the wind picks up and blows it around, and when that happens, it falls on everything.
Clean a glass table here and then wait ten minutes. It will have dust on it. Clean a mirror when the Sun shines through the window and you will be driven nuts by the fact that you won?t ever, ever get it perfectly clean. If you hate dust, don?t come here.
People ask all the time whether dust on the solar panels effects electrical production and if it does, should they wash it off? The answers are yes ? and no.
Take a look at yesterday?s solar output (the light blue bell curve). This is pretty normal stuff for the Valley of the Sun ? the power comes up with the Sun and then it goes down. No clouds and only a little jitteriness from unstable, super heated air around here. Then came last night?s storms ? we told you they were coming ? and they did ? monsoon rains finally fell ? a good strong storm came through and washed the accumulated dust from the panels and everything else, too. Since it hadn?t rained here in nearly two months, the panels seemed quite dusty and we all danced in the rain ? at last a good drink for the desert.
The darker blue line just above the light blue bell curve is the power output so far today. See, it?s a little bit higher than yesterday. What?s different? The panels are clean ? and there is more power from them. It?s not a lot of power, but it?s some and it?s noticeable.
So, to answer the questions: Yes, dust costs us some power, but no it?s not all that much. Washing the panels most likely costs more in water than you?d get back in electricity, and now you can see for yourself why this is true. Enjoy the rain ? it won?t last long ? but it does leave clean panels.
Original Article on SkyPower
Source: http://www.solarfeeds.com/skypower/17452-the-effect-of-dust-on-solar-panels
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