Impact of natural dust on PV module during winter in a suburb of Bangladesh: A case study

Abstract

The performance of photovoltaic (PV) modules is determined by a variety of factors, including natural dust. This study focuses on the performance of PV modules exposed to dust during the dry season in a Bangladeshi suburb. Data was collected in the study region from December 2022 to February 2023. The results reveal that on a normal sunny day, the clean module accumulates 26.56% more energy than the dusty one. Dust deposition causes a decrease in daily irradiance throughout a sunny week. Cumulative energy shows that the average difference between accumulated energy in January and February for the selected days is 18%. It means during the winter season in the studied area the module accumulates more dust if there is no rain, and the accumulation of the energy could vary up to 18% on average than a clean solar module.