Impact of the 2019-2020 Australian Black Summer Wildfires on Photovoltaic Energy Production

Air pollution produced by the Australian Black Summer wildfires caused extreme haze events across New South Wales (NSW). We analyzed 30-minute resolution energy data from 160 residential PV systems in NSW from 6 November 2019 to 15 January 2020. A percentile data analysis technique was adapted to derive a mean reduction rate for PV energy generation with PM2.5. The mean power reduction rate for PV systems was approximately
$-12.5\% \pm 2.2\%$
per
$100\ \mu\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{m}^{3}$
of PM2.5 for airmass 1.0. The energy loss for residential PV systems was estimated as
$39.8\pm 7.9$
GWh, equating to a worst-case financial impact of
$9.27 \pm 1.85$
million AUD. This work aims to help inform PV system planning and energy storage options of new PV systems; and raise awareness of the impact of wildfires and air pollution on solar PV.