Dust effects on the performance of PV street light in Baghdad city

Abstract

This paper deals with the study of the dust characteristics and its effect on the performance of street photovoltaic cells in Baghdad-Iraq. Sample of accumulated dust on the surface of the solar panels at height 26 meters have been microscopy examined with 100x magnification. The results show that, varies in size, shape and disruption. The morphology of dust particles has irregular forms, tends to be spherical and not all of them are completely opaque. VOC (group of carbon-based chemicals that easily evaporate at room temperature), which is most of them comes from the refineries causes a large adhesion to the dust particles in the installed solar panel.