Solar photovoltaics pose as a major technology in shifting reliance from non-renewable to renewable energy resources. Soiling is a key issue which is further escalated by dust blowing as a result of road infrastructure development in urban environments. The Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit Corridor (BRT) project provided a chance to carry out this study aimed at corelating scale of infrastructure development with heightened PV losses and formulating ways to cope with the problem. A site offering an urban topography located at a distance of 1.2 km away from the BRT route was identified. The soiling station at this site was operated for one month and the data was processed to identify the prevailing soiling loss trends. The soiling station recorded losses in excess of 20% within the first 2 weeks of operation. It was found that clouds and strong winds had no significant role in retarding the losses. However, frequent rainwater cleaning at one instant reversed the losses back to 0%. It was thus established that cleaning the modules with water on a two week basis during large scale road development works in and around urban areas could keep the losses within a bearable limit.
Shah Naveed: Research Scholar, US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan.
Saddam Ali: Research Associate, US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan.
Dr.Saim Saher: Assistant Professor, US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan.
Shah Naveed Saddam Ali and Dr.Saim Saher Impact of Urban Infrastructure Development on Power Loss of Solar Photovoltaic Modules International Journal of Engineering Works Vol. 6 Issue 06 PP. 196-201 June 2019
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