Performance study of monocrystalline solar panel in presence of certain dust

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the most promising and sustainable energy option available in current era. Looking to its availability in almost all parts of the globe, its performance under different types of dust like chalk dust, fly ash, cement and brick powder was studied. A monocrystalline solar panel capable to generate 10W peak wattage was selected. Both indoor and outdoor experiments were carried out in the 1st week of July. Initially the transmittance of light with clean panel was studied which was for the various types of dusts. Indoor and outdoor experiments were conducted to study current vs. voltage and power vs voltage characteristics. Efficiency was calculated for the outdoor experiment. The cleaned panel efficiency was 9.31% and efficiency after the sprinkling of various dust were 7.13%, 4.92%, 3.7% and 1.03% for cement, chalk dust, brick powder and fly ash respectively.