Dust effects on the PV plant efficiency: a new monitoring strategy

As well known dust deposition on PV panels results in a decrease of the electrical power produced by the panel/photovoltaic system. In order to assess this decrease and carry out a long-term economic analysis, it is desirable to make an accurate prediction of the efficiency of the system and of the maintenance costs. Starting from this assumption, an economic model that takes into account the relationship between the losses in the energy production and the cost of maintenance is very useful. In this paper the losses due to the dust will be evaluated considering radiation data provided by public meteorological stations installed which are few kilometers far from the considered PV system.