AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
Experimental Determination of Optical Losses due to Absorbing and Non-Absorbing Particles Deposited onto Solar Cells
LAURA LLANZA, Patricio Piedra, Hans Moosmuller, Desert Research Institute
Abstract Number: 525 Working Group: Aerosol Physics
Abstract Industrial solar energy production is rapidly expanding; however, the efficiency of solar cells decreases when mineral dust deposits onto their surface. We conducted an experimental study suspending absorbing or non-absorbing mineral dust in a deposition chamber. Glass slides were placed at the bottom of this chamber, simulating the solar cell with the entrained dust being allowed to gravitationally settle onto the slides. Once these glass slides acquired a desired deposited dust mass density, we removed them from the deposition chamber and measured their forward hemispheric scattering coefficient and direct beam light transmission with an integrating sphere spectrophotometer. This experiment allowed us to determine the optical losses of solar cells due to mineral dust deposition as a function of aerosol type, deposited mass density, and optical depth. Results will be presented for both strongly absorbing hematite and non-absorbing lake-bed deposits.