Analysis of the soiling effect on solar-panel power efficiency in the Colombian Caribbean region/Analisis del efecto de ensuciamiento sobre la eficiencia de paneles solares en el Caribe Colombiano

This paper summarizes the impact of soil/dirt in solar-panel performance in the Colombian Caribbean Region. The corresponding experiment compares the performance of two identical solar panels, which are subjected to different scenarios. The objective of this research is, to categorize or establish on site solar-radiation ranges in order to estimate the actual solar-panel efficiency compared to 1000 W/[m.sup.2]. The maximum power point is calculated using an I vs V transfer function approximation. The soiling related maximum-power-point impact analysis is carried out with a complete Multivariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) considering three fundamental factors: dirt/particles, solar radiation and day. According to experimental results, the soiling effect in the solar-panel efficiency reduction has been estimated as up to 6% during times of the day with the maximum solar radiation; while for lower radiations, the effect decreases exponentially becoming negligible on the available electric power. Thus, empirically it is shown that the effect of dirt/particles is significant from a clean solar-panel to one with light accumulation, but such a negative effect rapidly diminishes as accumulation changes from light to heavy. Therefore, it is suggested that once some dirt accumulates on a panel, a cleaning procedure can wait until the particle accumulation becomes heavy. Thus, this study can become a tool that solar-power-plant operators can employ to estimate the trade-off between photovoltaic-system power efficiency and its financial viability. Este artfculo analiza el efecto del material particulado sobre el rendimiento de paneles solares en la Region Caribe Colombiana. Durante el experimento se compara el rendimiento de dos paneles solares identicos sometidos a diferentes escenarios. El objetivo es categorizar y establecer rangos de radiacion solar para estimar su eficiencia comparado con la de 1000 W/[m.sup.2]. El maximo punto de potencia es calculado usando la aproximacion de la curva de transferencia I vs V, para luego analizar el impacto de la suciedad a traves de un analisis de varianza multifactorial completo (ANOVA) considerando tres factores fundamentales: suciedad/partfculas, radiacion solar y dfa. Segun los resultados, se estima que el efecto de la suciedad en la eficiencia decae hasta un 6% durante las horas del dfa con la maxima radiacion solar; para radiaciones menores, el impacto en la eficiencia disminuye exponencialmente, lo que implica que la s