INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF USING SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVES IN PHOTOVALTAIC PANEL CLEANING ON PHOTOVOLTAIC PANEL PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Today, with the rapid increase in population and the development of technology, the need for energy is increasing day by day. Obtaining the need for energy from a natural and renewable, unlimited energy source such as the sun is a desirable situation in terms of environmental, social and economic effects. Photovoltaic systems are systems that directly convert light energy into electrical energy and their use has been increasing rapidly in recent years. The performance of photovoltaic systems is directly proportional to the amount of sunlight coming on and absorbed by the panel. For this reason, factors such as dust and dirt that will cause the rays coming on the panel to be absorbed less from the panel should be removed from the surface.

In this study, the effects of mechanical and non-contact self-cleaning methods on PV panel performances were experimentally investigated using three methods. In the first method (Method I), the vibration produced by the ultrasonic transducer placed on the plate is transferred to the PV panel with the springs placed on the four corners of the PV panel with the plate on which the ultrasonic transducer is placed, and the effects of the vibration on the cleaning and performance of the PV panel are investigated. In the second method (Method II), the effects of surface acoustic sound waves produced by four piezoelectric actuators placed on the upper parts of the PV panel on panel cleanliness and thus panel performance were investigated. In the third method (Hybrid Method; Method I and Method II together), the effects of these two methods used together, namely hybrid use, on PV panel cleaning and thus performance were investigated.

The results show that a completely dusty and no power generation PV panel can increase the relative maximum power output to 53.80% by Method I, to 55.48% by Method II, and to 68.6% by the Hybrid method. In addition, the results show that the effectiveness of the applied methods increases as the panel tilt angle increases.