Dust Accumulation and Its Effect on PV Performance in Tropical Climate and Rice Farm Environment

Various PV power plants in tropical climate countries are located near agricultural farms. In this work, dust accumulation on PV modules installed in PV power plants in Thailand near rice farms was presented. Dust accumulation on sample glasses and its effects on the electrical performance in strings of PV modules for one year was studied. Dust deposition on each glass per two-week period was observed by SEM/EDS and optical microscopy. Electrical performance values of PV string in operation were collected and obtained from the plant. From the results, it was found that dust particle size was in the range of 10-20 μm for rice field environment. During the dry season period, the power and energy losses due to soiling were about 3-4% per month.