Soiling

Scientists in Egypt have created an anti-soiling coating for solar panels by mixing ethanol, deionized water, ammonium hydroxide and tetraethyl orthosilicate. They tested a coated panel outdoors for ten months and found that the panel showed a 64.7% higher current compared to reference modules without coating.

Conceived an international research group, the proposed model uses the convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture U-Net for image segmentation and the the CNN architecture InceptionV3-Net for fault classification.

Conceived by researchers in Canada, the novel method combines image processing and deep learning techniques to locate the areas of the solar panels covered with snow. It reportedly performed better than three other popular image processing-based segmentation methods.

Researchers in Morocco have examined the effects of an anti-reflective coating on solar panel performance under desert conditions and have found that it enhanced both the annual performance ratio and the energy yield by 2% and 5.5%, respectively. They have also found it to be durable and able to withstand dry cleaning methods under accelerated testing.

Developed by scientists in China, the proposed approach uses mathematical morphologies for image processing, such as image enhancement, sharpening, filtering, and closing operations. It also uses image histogram equalization and edge detection, among other methods, to find the soiled spot.

Scientists in Spain have implemented recursive least squares (RLS) algorithms for anomaly detection in PV systems and have found they can provide “more realistic and meaningful assessment” than traditional energy analysis.

PVRadar Labs has expanded its software platform to include PV project risk assessment functionality, reportedly enabling more realistic performance estimates based on historical climate data.

Slovakian scientists have developed a novel hydrophobic, antireflective coating for solar glass with a silica-titania thin film as the bottom layer and an inorganic-organic upper layer made of silica modified with triethoxy(octyl)silane. This new coating increases glass transmittance by 7% compared to uncoated glass.

Chemitek has developed new cleaning products for floating PV arrays. The Portuguese company says it has tested and confirmed them to be safe for animals and vegetation around such systems.

Scientists in Oman have analyzed the effect of soiling, cleaning, and water injection on the performance of PV panels in Oman. They have found the use of water for cooling may increase power yield by up to 23.9%.