Investigation of Photovoltaic Panel Degradation Affected by Dust in Jordan

The impact of dust on photovoltaic (PV) panel output power performance and energy generation is investigated in this study. The characteristic of the PV panel is analyzed for the dusted and clean panel and then compared with similar PV panels that have been affected by dust for a long time in the south of Jordan in the middle of the desert. The examined PV panels, which were uncleaned for two months, show 13.08% less energy generation compared to clean panels where, some panels suffer from hot spots and cracks after six months. The cell temperature of the cracked and dusted PV panels is increased. A string of four PV panels containing three cracked panels generates 20% less energy than the sum of the generated power from the panels individually.