Advanced performance testing of anti-soiling coatings - Part II: Particle-size dependent analysis for physical understanding of dust removal processes and determination of adhesion forces

摘要

Soiling is a severe problem for solar energy production. For the development and evaluation of new mitigation strategies such as innovative coatings for PV modules, reliable and realistic test methods are needed. An advanced laboratory soiling test setup and sequential test procedures were used to evaluate the anti-soiling performance of glass coatings. The test method comprises the process of dust deposition by sedimentation in a dust chamber at controlled environmental conditions and two approaches to simulate natural self-cleaning processes by wind, i.e. wind blow testing and rotational force tests (RFT).