New Approach for Reducing Impact of Sand Storm and Subsequent Deposition on Solar Panel in Desert Area

Abstract

In desert areas, solar panels are extensively used to convert solar energy into electrical energy as a potential source of the free energy. The solar panel in the remote locations suffers from frequent problem due to sand storm erosion effect. In effect, performance of the solar panel in desert areas is degraded. Previous studies explained how to use self-cleaning coats or active method that can reduce the impact of the sand particles but cannot avoid the attack forces of the sand storm. Thus, the work of this paper proposes a novel strategy to reduce erosion effect with the help of a motor-drive of tracker system. The erosion prevention strategy minimizes the attacking force of moving sand particles on the front surface of a panel during a sand storm. In this regard, the impact is virtually analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy under the sand storm. In the study, a procedure for determining optimum tilt angle of solar panel is described. In the tilting condition, striking velocity on the front-face of solar panel is significantly reduced. Here, the minimum value of air velocity on the solar panel’s surface is observed. It causes less erosion on the glass cover. Thus, the possibility of degradation rate of panels in desert areas is appreciably reduced and hence, the performance of the solar panels is improved as per the analysis of this paper. In addition, subsequent sand removal activity is done through jerking methodology by geared electric drive system after the storm. Thus, sand deposition on the solar panel due to storm is greatly avoided.