Quantifying Operational Snow Losses Using External Snow Data and the Marion Model

Understanding the effects of snowfall on photovoltaic ("PV") systems is essential in diagnosing operational disruptions. Typical PV systems contain measurement instruments for irradiance, temperature and wind. Instruments for snow detection, however, are not widely adopted in the utility-scale industry due to cost and availability. In the following paper, Cypress Creek Renewables ("CCR") combines operational PV system data and external snow records to characterize snow soiling losses. This implementation estimates 2% snow soiling across the fleet of CCR PV systems in 2018.