Análise da sujidade no desempenho de módulos fotovoltaicos

In recent years, photovoltaic energy is one of the fastest-growing ways of obtaining renewable energy in Brazil, with this exponential increase in the country’s energy matrix, there is a concern about maintaining and preserving the useful life of the system. In this sense, the dirtiness of the modules is the third factor that most impacts the performance of the photovoltaic system, due to the increase in cell temperature, the formation of hot spots, and the decrease in the incidence of sunlight for the photovoltaic effect. This work aims to analyze the impact of dirt on photovoltaic panels. This analysis is carried out by a case study that seeks to associate the use of a curve tracer and the use of a thermographic camera, in order to visually and quantitatively demonstrate the impact on energy production through analysis of electrical quantities and characteristic anomalies from the dirt. Three different tests were performed. The first test quantifies the loss of power generated by the dirtiness of the system, which after the natural cleaning caused by rain had a power increase of 26% . The second essay demonstrates the impact of bird-related waste and dirt on a solar power plant and the importance of manual cleaning. The third test presents the degradation generated in the IV curves, the performance of the by-pass diodes, and the reduction of up to a third of the system power due to the module’s dirtiness. Despite the impact of dirt being linked to system characteristics such as panel characteristics, module installation angle, and region where the plant is installed, thermographic analysis techniques and analysis of curves obtained by a tracer are capable of informing the current status of the power plant, assisting in forecasting and planning maintenance and cleaning of the photovoltaic system.