AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
The Role of Aerosols in Degrading Solar Panels: Exploring the Dependency of Size and Absorptivity
PATRICIO PIEDRA, Hans Moosmuller, Desert Research Institute
Abstract Number: 533 Working Group: Single Aerosol Particle Studies - Fundamentals
Abstract Sustainable energy from renewable resources such as wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and solar energy may have reliability issues due to the limited predictability of nature. However, energy production needs to match energy demand during peak and non-peak consumption to avoid costly power outages. Smart solar grids may reduce such problems by using models that forecast solar energy production. One factor that needs to be included in such models is the degradation of solar panel performance by aerosol deposition, for example during dust storms or due to soot deposition in polluted areas. Aerosols degrade the performance of solar panels by absorbing or back-scattering part of the incoming solar power, with field experiments reporting up to 85% degradation depending on the type of aerosol particles deposited and the particle mass per unit area.
We have conducted a theoretical study using both Mie theory and surface interacting discrete dipole approximation to analyze the role of particle size and imaginary part of the index of refraction on optical transmission and consequently solar panel performance. Our calculations indicate that optical transmission is commonly less than 50% for absorbing aerosols, but remains at above 90% for non-absorbing aerosols. This study presents an innovative treatment of optical surface-particle interaction that can be used for predictive modeling of solar panel degradation as part of solar forecasting.