A novel model to estimate the cleaning frequency for dirty solar photovoltaic (PV) modules in desert environment
A novel model to estimate the cleaning frequency for dirty solar photovoltaic (PV) modules in desert environmen YuJiang LinLu HaoLu Highlights •A novel model is developed to estimate the cleaning frequency for dirty PV modules in desert areas. •The cleaning criterion was 5% reduction in power with the accumulated dust density of 2 g/m2. •The cleaning time for PV modules in desert regions is about 20 days. •The effect of environmental parameters on the cleaning frequency are discussed respectively. Abstract Accumulated dust on solar photovoltaic (PV) modules can significantly decrease their energy output in desert environment. Therefore, cleaning the deposited dust on the PV module surface is crucial in engineering applications to maintain the high power output of solar power plants, especially in desert areas. Nevertheless, it is difficult to predict the reasonable cleaning frequency for PV modules by traditional methods. In this paper, a novel model to simply estimate the cleaning fre