Degradation of photovoltaic module output power by microparticles

One factor that reduces the output of photovoltaic module is direct blocking of light by shadows and by objects such as leaves and airborne dust. The output reduction due to vehicle exhaust and particles in the atmosphere is generally estimated to be about 3% [1], but this figure may be affected by differences in areas, which may arise from variations in particle size, color or some other factor. In this study, we investigated the effect of very small particles. In particular, there were examined the effect of particle material and size on the output power. Since SiO₂ and Si are the main components of sand from all areas in the world and SiO₂ makes up over 90% of sand from ancient deserts, there were investigated effect of SiO₂ and Si particles in this study.