Normal impact of sand particles with solar panel glass surfaces

Humood, Mohammad; Beheshti, Ali; Meyer, Jacob L.; Polycarpou, Andreas A.

doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2016.05.022

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Confirming Figure 6 and previous studies, 4,9,11,27 Figure 7 reveals the presence of shallow conchoidal fractures (1) and adhering particles (2), and large surface cracks (4). Besides cracking and subsequent flaking, distinctive for larger flaws, the scratch-like textures or elongated pits (3) already reported in references 27,28 are seen. Within the better resolution of Figure 7, this type of flaw appears most likely originated form plastic deformation without or with material accumulation at the end of the scratch.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…However, the vast majority of the surface is filled with clustered textures containing adhering particles and scratch-like surface textures, which were unremovable by cleaning. Confirming Figure 6 and previous studies, 4,9,11,27 Figure 7 reveals the presence of shallow conchoidal fractures (1) and adhering particles (2), and large surface cracks (4). These phenomena can irreversibly deteriorate the efficiency of PV module by light scattering.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…This stability against cleaning hints of plastic deformation phenomena and a strong adherence of particles chipped during mechanical damage. Besides cracking and subsequent flaking, distinctive for larger flaws, the scratch-like textures or elongated pits (3) already reported in references 27,28 are seen. As later accumulation of airborne dust particles during service is probably enhanced by surface roughness, increased light absorption can also be anticipated.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 61%

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Sand erosion of solar glass: Specific energy uptake, total transmittance, and module efficiency

et al. 2017

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Summary Surface roughness, RZ, normal transmittance, ΤN, total transmittance, ΤT, and photovoltaic (PV) module efficiency, ηS, were measured for commercial solar glass plates and PV test modules identically sandblasted with different loads of quartz sand (200–400 μm), impact inclination angles, and sand particle speed. Measured data are presented versus the specific energy uptake during sand blasting, E (J/m2). Cracks, adhering particles, and scratch‐like textures probably caused by plastic flow phenomena could be observed after sand blasting. Their characteristic size was much smaller than that of sand particles. After blasting and subsequent cleaning, the glass surface was still covered with adhering glass particles. These particles, cracks, and scratch‐like textures could not be removed by cleaning. For sand blasting with α = 30° inclination angle and E = 30 000 J/m2, normal transmittance, total transmittance, and relative module efficiency decreased by 29%, 2% and ∽2%, respectively. This finding indicates that diffusive transmission of light substantially contributes to PV module efficiency and that the module efficiency decrease caused by sand erosion can be better estimated from total than by normal transmittance measurements.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 61%

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Sand erosion of solar glass: Specific energy uptake, total transmittance, and module efficiency

et al. 2017

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“…In this study, the defects in glass reflectors provoked by air-borne particles at two representative sites in Morocco (Zagora and Missour) are analyzed. Because glass, with technology-appropriate surface coatings, is the state of the art material to maintain high efficiency of CSP as well as PV systems, the findings of the present work are relevant for both technologies [15,6]. Depending on the respective site differences a measurable optical performance loss could be detected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…For a 50 MW concentrating solar power plant (CSP) located in Spain an annual financial loss of 0.7 Me could be calculated when the reflectance of the mirrors is decreased by 1% [5]. Therefore there is a strong interest of the CSP and also photovoltaic (PV) industry to develop testing procedures which are capable to estimate the lifetime of optical components as it was recently done by many groups [6,7,8,9,10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%