Unveiling the impact of climate diversity on solar PV soiling.

Advanced knowledge of PV soiling can aid in the economic profitability of PV plants and efficient generation. This study introduces a novel approach for evaluating energy losses from soiling deposition on PV modules. Experimental investigations conducted under real outdoor conditions in Jaipur (India) were used to validate the model's accuracy, demonstrating close agreement (with MAPE < 3.6%). Annual soiling trends were also investigated for seven cities reflecting diverse climatic zones (hot-dry, warm-humid, composite, temperate, and cold) and pollutant (PM10) concentrations. The proposed model was also tested with three different cleaning thresholds using rainfall intensities of 1, 3, and 5 mm/day and energy yield reductions due to soiling were simulated. Consequently, the findings of this study underscore the significance of seasonal variations in soiling profiles for different cities and, thus, highlight the need to develop location-specific cleaning strategies for PV systems that also account for the soiling removal due to rain events. The significant contribution of this research is a simplistic modeling approach that addresses the relationship of PV soiling with the input parameters such as wind speed (WS), relative humidity (RH), rainfall, particulate matter (PM10), and tilt angle. Hence, the proposed method can calculate soiling losses worldwide irrespective of geographical differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]