Tracking Soiling Losses and Cleaning Profits Trends

摘要

Soiling losses can be mitigated by cleaning the PV modules. However, the profitability of PV cleaning varies with time, influenced by the electricity price, the module efficiency and the cleaning costs. The present work analyzes the trends in soiling losses and soiling mitigation profitability for the continental U.S. The initial results show that, because of the lowering electricity price, the portion of PV capacity economically worth cleaning is decreasing. This means that, even if the economic impact of soiling is lowering, the fraction of energy yield lost due to soiling is actually increasing, because of the reducing mitigation activities.