Enhancing the performance of PV system in dusty environment

Recently, Solar Photovoltaic has been reported to be one of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies for electricity generation due to its eco-friendly and flexible operation. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of dust on the performance of photovoltaic panels in Kuwait and develop a Concentrated PV system utilizing three dimensional solar concentrators with water cooling to maintain low PV module temperature. A detailed investigation was carried out to develop a 3D concentrator for the Pseudo-Squared shaped PV cells (3D-PSCPV) including optical, electrical and thermal performance under the effect of dust. The optical performance of clean and dusty 3D-PSCPV systems was investigated through advanced ray tracing techniques using OptisWorksTM software. Results showed that with the increase of the concentrator surface reflectivity, the optical efficiency and irradiance uniformity improved where the highest optical efficiency of 91.6% was achieved with reflectivity of 90%. The optimal concentrators’ height for concentration ratio of 2X, 4X and 6X are 45, 145 and 250mm, respectively. Regarding the effect of dust on the system efficiency, results showed that the average irradiance received by the PV was reduced by up to 17%