Optimizing wind barrier and photovoltaic array configuration in soiling mitigation

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of wind barriers and installation configuration on soiling of photovoltaic arrays. Soiling parameters including wind speed, tilt angles and dust particle sizes were investigated. Computational fluid dynamics was used to simulate airflow characteristics leading to the estimation of soiling on the photovoltaic array. The shading effects caused by the deposited dust particles, and the barrier height and position were also investigated. It was found that increasing the barrier height reduces soiling, but it also caused partial shading of the photovoltaic array, thus causing more reduction in the irradiance received. Increasing the barrier distance increased the amount of deposited particles on the collectors due to turbulent eddies forming behind the barrier. It was concluded that the use of barriers is an effective way of mitigating dust deposition and up to 25% of the total released dust particles were trapped by the barrier situated at 3 m from the solar collectors. Optimization to maximize the energy generated revealed a 2.81% increase in energy compared to an installation without a barrier. The best configuration of the solar collectors and the barrier was 0.932 m for barrier height, 3.9 m for barrier distance and a tilt of 21.11°.