Quantifying the Impact of Dust and Snow on PV Power Plants

Recording of Wednesday, May 07, 2025 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2025 | Conference Program | Language: English | Duration: 14:03 .

Exploring Advanced PV Soiling Models: Dust, Snow, and Pollen Impact on Solar Yield Predictions

Thore Müller, representing a Munich-based software and consultancy company specializing in complex modeling for the photovoltaic (PV) sector, discusses soiling—a key factor affecting solar panel efficiency. The focus is on dust, snow, and pollen soiling types while excluding more localized sources like agriculture or wildlife. Dust soiling involves dry particles that rain can wash away; it’s modeled using fixed rate models or particle deposition models such as Kimber's model and HSU's model. PVRADAR Labs GmbH has developed its own similar particle deposition model used to assess potential losses at locations like Yuma, Arizona by analyzing particulate matter concentrations from datasets like MERA2 alongside rainfall data. This approach helps determine average monthly losses due to dust accumulation and evaluate cleaning strategies' cost-effectiveness based on energy sales prices versus costs involved. Snow-related issues are addressed with popular models simulating accumulations impacting irradiance levels during winter months in northern regions—highlighting significant seasonal variations in production loss percentages compared across multiple years of historical data analysis for optimal strategy development tailored towards specific environmental conditions encountered within arid environments particularly emphasized herein!

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Speaker

Thore Müller
CEO
PVRADAR Labs GmbH
Germany

Talk of session: Utility-Scale Solar Power III: Impacts of Extreme Weather on PV Power Plants

The increase in frequency and intensity of severe weather events associated with global climate change poses a growing risk to PV systems worldwide. These local and global risks range from outright destruction of power plants to long-term performance losses due to accelerated component and system degradation. Without concerted and event-specific resilience strategies, severe weather increasingly threatens the robustness and availability of PV generation worldwide. This session will: Raise awareness of climate change and its implications for a solar-intensive energy economy Present a range of extreme-weather events that can impact PV power plants and identify/quantify the risks Share strategies for designing and siting storm-resilient PV systems Provide information on failure mechanisms and their root causes.

Further Talks of this session: