Enhance the performance of photovoltaic solar panels by a self-cleaning and hydrophobic nanocoating

Samir Ahmed Tayel; Ashour Eid Abu El-Maaty; Eman Mohamed Mostafa; Youssef Fayez Elsaadawi

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-25667-4

Enhance the performance of photovoltaic solar panels by a self-cleaning and hydrophobic nanocoating

Sci Rep. 2022 Dec 8;12(1):21236. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-25667-4.

Authors

Samir Ahmed Tayel¹, Ashour Eid Abu El-Maaty², Eman Mohamed Mostafa³, Youssef Fayez Elsaadawi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
² Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt.
³ Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.
⁴ Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt. dr.youssef@azhar.edu.eg.

Abstract

The photovoltaic (PV) solar panels are negatively impacted by dust accumulation. The variance in dust density from point to point raises the risk of forming hot spots. Therefore, a prepared PDMS/SiO2 nanocoating was used to reduce the accumulated dust on the PV panels' surface. However, the effectiveness of these coatings is greatly influenced by geographical and climatic factors. Three identical PV modules were installed to run comparable experimental tests simultaneously. The first module is coated with the prepared PDMS/SiO₂ nanocoating, the second is coated with commercial nanocoating, and the third module is uncoated and serves as a reference. The prepared nanocoating was hydrophobic and had a self-cleaning effect. The fill factors for the reference panel (RP), commercial-nanocoated panel (CNP), and prepared-nanocoated panel (PNP), were 0.68, 0.69, and 0.7, respectively. After 40 days of exposure to outdoor conditions, the dust densities on the RP and PNP panels' surfaces were 10 and 4.39 g/m², respectively. Thus, the nanocoated panel's efficiency was found to be higher than that of the reference panel by 30.7%.