The Influence of Sand on the Performance of CdTe Photovoltaic Modules of Different Colours and Transparencies

João Guilherme Severino Mendes Santos

Key information

Authors:

João Guilherme Severino Mendes Santos (João Guilherme Severino Mendes Santos)

Supervisors:

Carlos Alberto Ferreira Fernandes (Carlos Alberto Ferreira Fernandes); João Paulo Neto Torres (João Paulo Neto Torres)

Published in

October 12, 2020

Abstract

With recent technological advances, more people are moving towards the use of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. This group includes the photovoltaic technologies that have been improving by leaps and bounds, although they still need a lot of development. Factors as the dust still need further research. In the same vein, this dissertation investigates the influence of sand, type of dust, and colour on the energy performance of CdTe modules. For this, experimental tests were carried out in the presence of sand and without its presence. In the tests without sand, it was found that the transparency and colour of the modules had an influence on the results, due to their connection with the spotlight irradiation spectrum. In the case of the presence of sand, with various densities, a general decrease in energy assessment parameters was observed with the exception of Fill Factor. For the computational simulation of the implemented 1M5P model, both cases were evaluated, and for the absence of sand, the errors ranged from 9.19% to 11.30%, not being very significant. With sand, the errors varied between 8.87% and 12.09%, but without any tendency with the increase of sand. It can be concluded that the model is representative and serves as an error metric for tests without sand because it was developed for this specific case. However, in the case of the tests with sand, it is no longer representative so, it would be necessary to consider in its development factors such as humidity and temperature.