Soiling Model for PV Applications: Improved Parameterizations

Soiling of PV modules causes large financial losses worldwide. It is therefore essential to understand this process and model it precisely. The Coello & Boyle soiling model is widely used, but so far, its evaluations have shown widely variable performance depending on whether dry deposition velocities are considered constant or derived from a physics-based parameterization. This study shows how different possible parameterizations and optional adaptation of the parameters to the characteristics of PV plants explain this counterintuitive finding. The present results also highlight the importance of adjusting the most critical parameterizations to the realistic conditions of actual PV systems to improve the soiling model's performance and universal reliability.