The influence of mineral dust particles on the energy output of photovoltaic cells

The city of Al Khafji in Saudi Arabia plans to provide a regular supply of desalinated water from the Persian Gulf while simultaneously cutting back on the usage of fossil fuels. The power for the high energy-consuming reverse osmosis (RO) process will be derived from photovoltaic (PV) cells as a cleaner and resource-conserving means of energy production. Numerous sun hours (yearly 3000) makes the Persian Gulf region's geographical location appropriate for applying PV techniques at this scale. A major concern for PV power generation is mineral dust from desert regions accumulating on surfaces and thereby reducing the energy output. This study aims to show the impact of dust particles on the PV energy reduction by examining dust samples from various Persian Gulf regions. Bulk samples were collected at the surface. The experimental setup involved a sealed container with a solar panel unit (SPU), including an adjustable mounting plate, solar cells (amorphous and monocrystalline), and a pyranometer (SMP3, Kipp & Zonen Inc.). A Tungsten Halogen lamp was used as the light source. Dust particles were aerosolized with a shaker (Multi-Wrist shaker, Lab line). Different techniques were applied to characterize each sample: the particle size distributions were measured using an Optical Particle Sizer (OPS, TSI Inc.), the chemical composition was analyzed using the Particle Analysis by Mass Spectrometry (PALMS) instrument, and Transmission Electron Microscope Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (TEM-EDX) was used to define morphology, size and structure. Preliminary results show that the energy output is affected by aerosol morphology (monodisperse, polydisperse), composition and solar cell type.