Effects of Local Economy and Seasonal Cleaning Cycle on Yield and Profit of Soiled Solar Farms

Alongside advancements in photovoltaics (PV) technology, efficient solar farm operation (e.g., strategic panel cleaning) can help lower electricity generation costs in the field. In this work, we study the effects of season-dependent soiling and cleaning on energy yield, revenue, and profit in four locations – Dhaka (Bangladesh), Oregon City (USA), Berlin (Germany), and Rumah (Saudi Arabia). These locations cover a wide range of soiling rates, season-dependent rainfall, cleaning costs, and tariff rates for a broad techno-economic analysis of soiling-affected solar farms. While a two-month cleaning cycle, for example, apparently seems too long for soiling-prone locations (Dhaka and Rumah) – this is too frequent for Oregon City and Berlin due to their high cleaning costs. Therefore, the optimal strategy for maximum profit for the latter two locations is to never clean the panels. Even at optimal cleaning cycle (maximum revenue/profit), there is a profit-loss of 13.28%, 19.97%, 1.39%, and 42.88%, compared with the respective soiling-free rated farm output at these locations. We also show the sensitivity of output and profit to the variations in soiling rate and cleaning cost; farms in Dhaka and Rumah show strong sensitivity due to the high soiling rate and low cleaning costs.