Dust accumulation profiles and its effect on PV performance in rice field and cassava farm environment

Dust significantly affects the optical efficiency of PV systems. In Thailand, almost PV power plants were established near agricultural sites, increasing the possibility of dust from agricultural products and associated processes such as soil tillage and plant burning, resulting to dust accumulated on PV modules and highly affected PV performance. In this study, dust accumulation on PV modules installed in two PV power plants in Thailand are presenting which are located on rice field and cassava farm environment. Dust characteristic, element of dust, dust accumulation profile on sample glasses and its effects on the electrical performance in strings of PV modules for one year were studied. It was found that dust accumulation profiles during one year of both sites had a supine curve. However, dust accumulation did not increase constantly, but reduced periodically before returning to a high level due to rain and wind instability even though during the dry season, the highest level of area fraction of dust accumulation was 15% (Dec-Jan) for rice field environment and 25% (Nov-Dec) for cassava farm environment. In addition, the PV performance losses were about 3-4% for rice field environment and 5% for cassava farm environment during one month in dry season.