NoSoilPV · Novel Soiling Identification Logics for Photovoltaics
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-12-03 → 2020-12-02
- EU contribution
- €158,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Novel Soiling Identification Logics for Photovoltaics
NoSoilPV aimed to tackle an issue affecting the performance of photovoltaic (PV) system worldwide: soiling. Soiling consists of the accumulation of dust, particles, and contaminants on the surface of PV modules and absorbs, reflects, deflects part of the sunlight. Therefore, the amount of light reaching the photovoltaic cell and converted into electricity is reduced if soiling is not removed. Soiling is estimated to have caused, in 2018 alone, the loss of 3% to 4% of the energy produced by photovoltaic worldwide and these losses are expected to raise in future as more PV capacity is installed in high insulation and high soiling risk areas. However, differently from other reliability issues affecting PV, soiling is reversible and can therefore be mitigated. Cleanings are still nowadays the most common soiling mitigation strategy, but they have a cost. Therefore, the revenues made with the recovered energy after a cleaning have to be larger than its costs for it to be profitable. This means that the frequency and the timing of cleanings have to be correctly set to make soiling mitigation profitable. This project provided the community with better tools for tackling soiling, through the investigation of different aspects of soiling monitoring and modelling. As part of this project, improvements have been made in the field of soiling extraction, monitoring and economics. The factors affecting the cleaning schedule profitability have been identified and a model has been developed for the advanced optimization of soiling mitigation. These studies have opened the way to the possibility of predicting in advance the optimal cleaning schedule through the analysis of environmental parameters only, meaning that O&M activities can be planned even before the PV site is operational. Several reasons have been motivating this project. Indeed, an optimized soiling mitigation strategy increases the PV capacity factors with only limited additional costs. These would lead to higher profits, potentially attracting even more investments in PV and therefore favoring the installation of new PV capacity.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Soiling (i.e. the accumulation of dust on photovoltaic modules) is an issue affecting photovoltaic (PV) systems worldwide and causes significant economic losses. An appropriate cleaning schedule can raise the energy yield of the PV modules and reduce the operating costs, increasing the revenues and, at the same time, limiting the need of non-renewable energy generation. NoSoilPV aims to tackle this issue by developing a smart method capable of quantifying the soiling accumulated on the PV modules in real time without the need of expensive additional hardware. Moreover, through the analysis of historical precipitation datasets and the use of weather prediction models, the algorithm developed in this project will predict the economic impact of soiling and notify at which time artificial cleanings should be performed in order to minimize costs and maximize the energy production.NoSoilPV will be conducted by Dr. Leonardo Micheli within the Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy and Environment (CEAEMA) of the University of Jaén (Spain). CEAEMA is an ideal environment for this project, which involves PV performance analysis, weather and dust prediction modelling and machine learning techniques, because of the high quality research conducted in PV and in all the multidisciplinary aspects of the project. NoSoilPV aims to answer a number of unsolved questions in soiling and to provide the community a useful tool to increase the energy production and the economic revenues. The project will support the EU in its effort to increase the clean energy share and to maximize material efficiency, leading to an increase in PV energy yield, without the installation of new modules or systems. In addition, this fellowship will favor the EU reintegration of Dr. Micheli and will give him the opportunity to enhance his career as an independent researcher.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSIDAD DE JAEN · JAENCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union