Mitigation of Soiling Losses in Concentrating Solar Collectors

The adverse impact of soiling (dust deposition) on solar collectors, and the mitigation of the related energy yield losses, are the main scopes of this paper. While soiling related losses have been studied more extensively for flat-plate photovoltaic (PV) panels, this study focuses primarily on the impact of dust accumulation on concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. We report on different methods used for cleaning solar collectors: (i) natural cleaning by rain and snowfall, (ii) manual cleaning by water and detergent, and (iii) an emerging method of dust removal by electrodynamic screens (EDS). Development of EDS technology as an automated, low-cost dust removal method which does not require any water or manual labor is presented.