A Study On Dust Effect On The Performance Of Solar Pv Panel And Design Of A Solar Pv Panel Cleaner

DEDICATION

This project is dedicated to Almighty God for his protection, kindness, strength over my life throughout the period and also to my — for his financial support and moral care towards me.Also to my mentor — for her academic advice she often gives to me. May Almighty God shield them from the peril of this world and bless their entire endeavour Amen.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The successful completion of this project work could not have been a reality without the encouragement of my — and other people. My immensely appreciation goes to my humble and able supervisor Mr. — for his kindness in supervising this project. My warmest gratitude goes to my parents for their moral, spiritual and financial support throughout my study in this institution.
My appreciation goes to some of my lecturers among whom are Mr. —, and Dr. —. I also recognize the support of some of the staff of — among whom are: The General Manager, Deputy General manager, the internal Auditor Mr. — and the —. Finally, my appreciation goes to my elder sister —, my lovely friends mercy —, —, — and many others who were quite helpful.

ABSTRACT

Accumulation of dust from the outdoor environment on the panels of solar photovoltaic (PV) system is natural. There were studies that showed that the accumulated dust can reduce the performance of solar panels, but the results were not clearly quantified. The objective of this research was to study the effects of dust accumulation on the performance of solar PV panels. Experiments were conducted using dust particles on solar panels with a constant-power light source, to determine the resulting electrical power generated and efficiency. It was found from the study that the accumulated dust on the surface of photovoltaic solar panel can reduce the system’s efficiency by up to 50%. In order to regularly clean the dust, an automatic cleaning system has been designed, which senses the dust on the solar panel and also cleans the module automatically. The cleaning system has been designed cleans the module by controlling the motorized chain sprocket arrangement. To remove the dust in the PV modules to improving the power efficiency.

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

ABBREVIATION

CHAPTER ONE

1.0      INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
• SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
• RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• REVIEW OF THE STUDY
• REVIEW OF SOLAR POWER
• REVIEW OF SOLAR PANEL
• REVIEW SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC
• OVERVIEW OF SOLAR ENERGY
• MAXIMIUM ANGLE OF INCLINATION
• EFFECT OF DUST PROPERTIES
• EFFECT OF PV SYSTEM PARAMETERS
• EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENT PARAMETERS

CHAPTER THREE

3.0     METHODOLOGY

3.1     INTRODUCTION

3.2     EXPERIMENT APPARATUS AND SETUP

3.3     SOLAR PV PANEL CLEANER DESIGN

3.4      HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

3.5      SYSTEM DESIGN

3.6      DESIGN CALCULATION

CHAPTER FOUR

4.1         RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.2          SOLAR PANEL MAINTENANCE

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION
• REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                      INTRODUCTION

1.1                                         BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Solar photovoltaic (PV) system uses solar cells to convert energy from sun radiation into electricity. The system is made up by one or more panels, a battery, a charge control and the load. Solar PV panels are normally mounted on roofs and wired into a building by an inverter, which converts the direct current energy received from solar panels into alternating current. There are many types of solar PV cells available, which are mainly monocrystalline silicon cells, multi crystalline silicon cells, thick film silicon, and amorphous silicon. The application of solar energy has become wider in Nigeria.

Considering that the country gets an average of 8 hours of sunshine every day, there is huge potential for high solar power generation. At present, the number of solar PV applications in Nigeria is still growing. It is generally restricted to rural electrification, street and garden lighting, and telecommunications. The project would be expected to enable the operator to understand the system well before embarking into development of plants of bigger scale.

A drop in the efficiency of a solar PV panel throughout its life cycle is not desired, since the capital cost for the system is quite high. PV cells can normally last for about 25 years, and it takes approximately up to six years (Kannan et al., 2016) for the solar PV module to generate the equivalent amount of energy consumed in its manufacturing processes. One of the contributing factors in the drop of efficiency of solar PV panels in Nigeria as well as in other country is the accumulated dust on the panel. The nature of the problem may vary by geographical locations.

Hottel and Woertz (2012) were amongst the pioneers investigating the impact of dust on solar systems. They recorded a maximum degradation in collector performance of 4.7%, with an average loss in incident solar radiation being less than 1%. In a study by Salim et al. (2018) into dust accumulation on a solar-village PV system near Riyadh indicated a 32% reduction in performance after eight months. Wakim (2019) indicated a reduction in PV power by 17% due to sand accumulation on panels in Kuwait city after six days. Furthermore the study also indicated that the influence of dust on PV performance would be higher in spring and summer than in autumn and winter. An experiment to investigate the effect of aeolian dust deposition on photovoltaic solar cells by Dirk Goosen et. al (2019) showed that the deposition of fine aeolian dust particles on the glazing of PV cells significantly affected the performance of such cells. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of wind velocity and airborne dust concentration on the drop of PV cell performance caused by dust accumulation.

In order to avoid the effect of dust on solar panel, solar panel needs to be clean from time-to-time.

Traditionally cleaning system was done manually. The manual cleaning has disadvantages like risk of staff accidents and damage of the panels, movement difficulties, poor maintenance etc. The automatic dust cleaning system of solar panels has taken to overcome the difficulties arise in the traditional cleaning and also produces an effective, non – abrasive cleaning and avoids the irregularities in the productivity due to the deposition of dust . The studies carried out to evaluate the efficiency of solar panel for dust collected on it for one day, one week and a month. The efficiency of solar panel also calculated after cleaning the surface for one day, one week and a month. And finally comparing both the efficiencies it is proved that solar panel efficiency increases considerably. Thus the developed model enhances the solar panel performance. Various source of energy like coal, gas, hydro, nuclear, renewable, diesel and their some of them are going to be exhausted within few years.

1.2      PROBLEM STATEMENT

Currently, the use of renewable energy (solar) has increase in Nigeria due to the environmental pollution caused by the conventional generator and the increasing oil prices. Despite the high use of solar energy most users are ignorant of the environmental factors that affect the solar panel which at the end affects the efficiency of the solar panel output. This study was carried out to bring to the knowledge of the reader the effects of dust accumulation on the performance of solar PV panels on a designed solar system and to design a self-directing system to sense the physical parameter like dust of the solar panel with the help of dust sensor. When the sensor readings traverse the fixed values, then using a wiper the dust is removed.

1.3                                 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this research was to study the effects of dust accumulation on the performance of solar PV panels on a designed solar system and to overcome the unwanted effects by Designing and Development of Solar panel cleaning machine.

1. To investigate the direct effect of dust on solar panel
2. To study how solar panel can be taken care of

• To design a self-directing system to sense the physical parameters like dust of the solar panel with the help of dust sensor respectively.

1. To clean the solar panel
2. To avoid the manual
3. To avoid dust associated problems on solar panels

1.4                               SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of this work covers the dust effect on the performance of solar pv panel on a design solar system. The peaking of most oil reserves and impending climate change are critically driving the adoption of solar photovoltaic’s (PV) as a sustainable renewable and eco-friendly alternative. Ongoing material research has yet to find a breakthrough in significantly raising the conversion efficiency of commercial PV modules. The installation of PV systems for optimum yield is primarily dictated by its geographic location (latitude and available solar insolation) and installation design (tilt, orientation and altitude) to maximize solar exposure. This study is also coupled with the design self-operating dust leaning machine.

1.5                                               RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This research work shall bring answers to the following questions:

1. Does dust affect solar panel?
2. What is the impact of dust on the PV efficiency?

• How can you tell if a solar panel has dust?

1. How does humidity affect the accumulation of dust on the surface of PV panel?

1.6                                         SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This work will serve as a means of enlightening the users of solar energy on how to maintain the performance of their solar energy by taking care of the accumulated dust on the panel.

This study will also help the solar panel installers to have a full knowledge on how a solar panel can be installed.

This study will enable the operator to understand the system well before embarking into development of plants of bigger scale.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Format = Microsoft word

Chapters = 1-5 chapters

Price: N3,000.

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