**6.2 Electrical characterization and soiling effect**

To understand the variation effect of the amount of the dust from (HP) to (AD) site, we considering the **Figure 10**, we found that for the same value of dust density, *Utilization of MOSFET Transistor to Characterize PV Panels under Dust: Study Area… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109731*

#### **Figure 9.**

*Optical transmittance of (HP) and (AD) dust.*

**Figure 10.** *I-V characteristics of SX-330 J panel.*

the current intensity delivered by the PV panel, in the case of (HP) dust area, is higher than the current intensity delivered by the PV panel in the case of (AD) dust. In addition, the drop off in the density of the dust lead to a remarkable decrease in the current intensity. For both areas (HP and AD), in **Figure 11**, the calculated Er between experimental and simulated results is less than 15%.

The drop in power output caused by the accumulation of dust on the photovoltaic module surface is a big issue as reported by several authors [25–27]. **Figures 12–14** shows the evolution of the maximum power recorded on a PV module SX330J soiled at various dust densities: 1.75, 3.45, 6.77 g/m2 (**Figure 15**).

The salient feature of our investigations is a clear decline of the maximum power output. Pmax decreases non-linearly with dust density. Our results are in good agreements with several works published by other authors [25, 26]. The maximum power Pmax of our solar panel drop off from 30 W to only 17 W when the dust density is

#### **Figure 11.** *Relatives error between experimental and simulated I-V curves.*

**Figure 12.** P-V *curve, simulated and experimental under 1.75 g/m2 of dust.*

**Figure 13.** *P*-V *curve, simulated and experimental under 3.45 g/m2 of dust.*

*Utilization of MOSFET Transistor to Characterize PV Panels under Dust: Study Area… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109731*

**Figure 14.** *P*-V *curve, simulated and experimental under 6.77 g/m2 of dust.*

**Figure 15.** *Dust density effect on maximum power under dust type of AD and HP.*

around 6.77 g/m<sup>2</sup> in the case of (HP) dust, and as weak as 14 W in the case of the (AD) dust. The observed behavior is correlated to the difference of dust distribution. Indeed, the size and distribution of the dust have a major effect on the degradation of PV performance, as small particles tend to block more sunlight radiation, with less space, and therefore contribute more to the deterioration of PV performance [28]. This can be explained by the fact that smaller particles are more uniformly distributed than larger particles [29], resulting in greater light scattering, especially at low intensities [30]. The huge loss (more than 50% in our case) of the generated PV power is a key factor of uncertainty and risk for solar production. As reported by several authors, less than 10% loss is the threshold for the need of cleaning. Such operation is inescapable for the recovery of the power [31, 32].
