Investigation of the Impact of Soot on the Efficiency of Solar Panels using a Smart Intelligent Monitoring System

Abstract

Globally there has been an increase in the rate of acceptance of solar Photovoltaic (PV) system because it is a source of green energy and contributes greatly to the reduction of global warming. This notwithstanding, there are environmental factors that affect the efficiency of the solar PV systems in different parts of the world. Rivers state in southern part of Nigeria is facing the challenges of air pollution and very high level of sooth production due to the proliferation of illegal refineries. The presence of soot has had great negative impacts on the environment. There has been an increase in the rate of maintenance of solar PV systems. This work is on determining the impact of soot on solar panels with the goal of increasing the efficiency of power generated in rivers state Nigeria using smart intelligent monitoring system which involved using (Internet of Things) IOT edge to cloud analytics. The work comprises of analysis of data collected at the cloud level under a soot free condition and a soot polluted condition respectively to determine the effect of soot on the panel temperature of the solar photovoltaic system. A comparison of both shows that the temperature of the solar panel under soot condition is higher than that under a soot free condition. The presence of soot reduces the output of solar panels by 27.8%. So PV system mounted in such environment will require more frequent maintenance than its counterparts mounted in locations where there is no soot condition.