Impact of atmospheric aerosols on photovoltaic energy production Scenario for the Sahel zone

Neher, Ina; Buchmann, Tina; Crewell, Susanne; Evers-Dietze, Bernd; Pfeilsticker, Klaus; Pospichal, Bernhard; Schirrmeister, Christopher; Meilinger, Stefanie

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.08.168

Cited by 42 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Aerosols made up of dust, smoke particles, haze, and small water droplets cause scattering of SR, which varies depending upon the actual atmospheric conditions. In certain cases, aerosol can cause 80% reduction in SR, as shown in [46,[90][91][92][93]. Under clear-sky conditions, when the atmosphere is free of clouds, aerosols play an important role in the transfer of SR.…”

Section: Effect Of Aerosolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Energy Estimations in India Using Remote Sensing Technologies and Validation with Sun Photometers in Urban Areas

et al. 2020

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Solar radiation ground data is available in poor spatial resolution, which provides an opportunity and demonstrates the necessity to consider solar irradiance modeling based on satellite data. For the first time, solar energy monitoring in near real-time has been performed for India. This study focused on the assessment of solar irradiance from the Indian Solar Irradiance Operational System (INSIOS) using operational cloud and aerosol data from INSAT-3D and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)-Monitoring Atmospheric Composition Climate (MACC), respectively. Simulations of the global horizontal irradiance (GHI) and direct normal irradiance (DNI) were evaluated for 1 year for India at four Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) stations located in urban regions. The INSIOS system outputs as per radiative transfer model results presented high accuracy under clear-sky and cloudy conditions for GHI and DNI. DNI was very sensitive to the presence of cloud and aerosols, where even with small optical depths the DNI became zero, and thus it affected the accuracy of simulations under realistic atmospheric conditions. The median BSRN and INSIOS difference was found to vary from −93 to −49 W/m2 for GHI and −103 to −76 W/m2 for DNI under high solar energy potential conditions. Clouds were able to cause an underestimation of 40%, whereas for various aerosol inputs to the model, the overall accuracy was high for both irradiances, with the coefficient of determination being 0.99, whereas the penetration of photovoltaic installation, which exploits GHI, into urban environments (e.g., rooftop) could be effectively supported by the presented methodology, as estimations were reliable during high solar energy potential conditions. The results showed substantially high errors for monsoon season due to increase in cloud coverage that was not well-predicted at satellite and model resolutions.

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Section: Effect Of Aerosolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Energy Estimations in India Using Remote Sensing Technologies and Validation with Sun Photometers in Urban Areas

et al. 2020

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“…The AOD at 550 nm was found to range from 0.034 to 0.966 indicating the strong particulate matter background of the region especially in spring and summer months. Summer was found to present high aerosol loads [10,16,22] mainly because particle accumulation is favoured in this season by the absence of precipitations and by atmospheric stability [78]. On the other hand, the highest values (>0.8) are in April when particles produced by natural processes like the wind-erosion of desert surfaces and in particular the Khamaseen dust storms [17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Section: Climatological Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As cloudy conditions in Egypt are rare, aerosols, mainly dust aerosols, are the most common source of solar irradiance attenuation [10,11], causing performance problems in the photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. In various cases aerosol and dust are able to cause solar energy losses of the order of 80% and 50%, respectively [12][13][14][15][16]. In particular, the main source of aerosols in Egypt is Saharan dust and more specifically the Khamassen dust storms, which is a fifty days phenomenon (Khamaseen in Arabic means "fifty"), frequent from mid/March through April [17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Earth-Observation-Based Estimation and Forecasting of Particulate Matter Impact on Solar Energy in Egypt

et al. 2018

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This study estimates the impact of dust aerosols on surface solar radiation and solar energy in Egypt based on Earth Observation (EO) related techniques. For this purpose, we exploited the synergy of monthly mean and daily post processed satellite remote sensing observations from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), radiative transfer model (RTM) simulations utilizing machine learning, in conjunction with 1-day forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). As cloudy conditions in this region are rare, aerosols in particular dust, are the most common sources of solar irradiance attenuation, causing performance issues in the photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) plant installations. The proposed EO-based methodology is based on the solar energy nowcasting system (SENSE) that quantifies the impact of aerosol and dust on solar energy potential by using the aerosol optical depth (AOD) in terms of climatological values and day-to-day monitoring and forecasting variability from MODIS and CAMS, respectively. The forecast accuracy was evaluated at various locations in Egypt with substantial PV and CSP capacity installed and found to be within 5–12% of that obtained from the satellite observations, highlighting the ability to use such modelling approaches for solar energy management and planning (M&P). Particulate matter resulted in attenuation by up to 64–107 kWh/m2 for global horizontal irradiance (GHI) and 192–329 kWh/m2 for direct normal irradiance (DNI) annually. This energy reduction is climatologically distributed between 0.7% and 12.9% in GHI and 2.9% to 41% in DNI with the maximum values observed in spring following the frequent dust activity of Khamaseen. Under extreme dust conditions the AOD is able to exceed 3.5 resulting in daily energy losses of more than 4 kWh/m2 for a 10 MW system. Such reductions are able to cause financial losses that exceed the daily revenue values. This work aims to show EO capabilities and techniques to be incorporated and utilized in solar energy studies and applications in sun-privileged locations with permanent aerosol sources such as Egypt.

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“…Neher et al investigated the impacts of aerosols on PV production using an atmospheric radiative transfer and a PV power model. The study concerns a Sub-Saharan region, and the results show reduction on PV yields from 2-48% [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface Dust and Aerosol Effects on the Performance of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

Ρουμπακιάς

Stamatelos

2020

Sustainability

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A large number of grid-connected Photovoltaic parks of different scales have been operating worldwide for more than two decades. Systems’ performance varies with time, and an important factor that influences PV performance is dust and ambient aerosols. Dust accumulation has significant effects depending the region, and—on the other hand—understanding the role of absorption or scattering in particular wavelengths from aerosols is a challenging task. This paper focuses on performance analysis of a grid-connected PV system in Central Greece, aiming to study these effects. The methodology of analysis follows three directions, namely, PR computations, use of mathematical model’s prediction as reference value, and normalized efficiency calculation. These metrics are correlated with the levels of dust accumulation on PV panels’ surfaces and the ambient aerosol mass concentration. The results show that only heavily soiled surfaces have significant impact on PV performance and, particularly, a decrease of 5.6%. On the other hand, light or medium soiling have negligible impact on PV performance. On the other hand, the impact of ambient aerosol concentration levels on PV efficiency is more complex and requires further study. Aerosol scattering of different wavelengths can possibly affect PV efficiency, however, this fact may be related to the specific spectral response of PV cells.

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Impact of atmospheric aerosols on photovoltaic energy production Scenario for the Sahel zone

Cited by 42 publications

References 39 publications

Solar Energy Estimations in India Using Remote Sensing Technologies and Validation with Sun Photometers in Urban Areas

Solar Energy Estimations in India Using Remote Sensing Technologies and Validation with Sun Photometers in Urban Areas

Earth-Observation-Based Estimation and Forecasting of Particulate Matter Impact on Solar Energy in Egypt

Surface Dust and Aerosol Effects on the Performance of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

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