Experimental study on the impact of soiling on the modules temperature and performance of two different PV technologies under hot arid climate

In this paper we conducted an experimental study to evaluate the impact of soiling on the temperature and electricity production of two photovoltaic technologies (Poly-Si and CdTe) under a hot semi-arid climate of Morocco. For this purpose, two modules -from each technology-were exposed for one year where one is cleaned every day and the other is left to accumulate soiling on its surface. In parallel, the electrical parameters, the weather data and the modules temperature were monitored using high precision instruments. Results show that the Poly-Si technology is highly affected by soiling in comparison to the CdTe where the measured daily Soiling ratio (SR) can reach 0.70 and 0.73 respectively. This values lead to a drop on the energy production of 15% for the Poly-Si and 13%. Regarding the modules temperature (Tm) results show that soiling has an impact on increasing the temperature for both technologies, but the Poly-Si module is more affected than the CdTe one, where the daily average temperature difference between the clean and the soiled modules is around 1.5 °C and 1.3 °C for both technologies, respectively.