SOILING MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC ARRAYS

摘要

A system for measuring the power or energy loss in a photovoltaic array due to soiling, which is the accumulation of dust, dirt, and/or other contaminants on the surfaces of photovoltaic modules, comprising: a pair of photovoltaic reference devices placed within or near the photovoltaic array and co-planar to the modules comprising the array, wherein one reference device is a module similar to those of the array and is allowed to accumulate soiling at the natural rate, and wherein the second reference device is a module or a cell and is periodically cleaned; and a measurement and control unit which measures and compares the electrical outputs of the soiled reference device and the clean reference device in order to determine the fraction of power lost by the soiled reference module due to soiling.

主权项

1. A system for measuring electrical output loss in a photovoltaic (PV) array due to soiling, comprising:
a pair of PV reference modules placed substantially proximate to the PV array and substantially co-planar to modules forming the PV array, said pair of PV reference modules comprising:
a soiled reference module, comprising a PV module representative of a portion of the PV array, wherein the soiled reference module is allowed to accumulate soiling at a rate representative of the rate of soiling of the PV array; anda clean reference module, comprising a PV module representative of a portion of the PV array, wherein the sensing surface of said clean reference module is maintained substantially clean and free of accumulated soiling; and a measurement and control unit which measures the maximum power of said soiled reference module and the maximum power of said clean reference module, wherein said measurement and control unit further comprises a computing device which analyzes said measurements to determine a power loss due to soiling.