Abstract
The accumulation of dust on PV modules surface results in a loss of performance. PV plants installed in areas prone to pollution, or to the presence of sand or sea salt in the atmosphere are more affected by soiling. The process is also favored by the scarcity of rainfalls. The South Tyrol region (North-East of Italy) is not particularly affected by this process. However, in the last two months of 2015 a dry period with no rainfalls was registered in the area. This coincided with construction works on the extension of the runways at Airport Bolzano Dolomiti, where a
multi-technology PV test facility is installed.
This paper calculates the performance losses, expressed as daily percentage, of 13 crystalline-silicon based PV technologies. Comparisons are carried out considering different glass textures (smooth vs structured), orientations of the modules within the array (portrait vs landscape) and the presence of a frame.