Mars Soiling Sensor™

We evaluate a new proprietary optical soiling sensor concept that does not require washing. The compact lowcost sensor is designed to permit PV system soiling measurement with lower cost and labor requirements compared to traditional soiling sensors using a pair of PV reference devices. These attributes would allow the sensor to be deployed at a much greater range of sites including commercial-scale PV installations. Initial results using soiled glass test coupons demonstrate excellent correlation between the optical sensor and a PV cell.