This paper reports an experimental investigation of the dust particle deposition process on\nsolar photovoltaic (PV) modules with different surface temperatures by a heating plate to illustrate\nthe effect of the temperature difference (thermophoresis) between the module surface and the\nsurrounding air on the dust accumulation process under different operating temperatures. In general,\nif the temperature of PV modules is increased, the energy conversion efficiency of the modules is\ndecreased. However, in this study, it is firstly found that higher PV module surface temperature\ndifferences result in a higher energy output compared with those modules with lower temperature\ndifferences because of a reduced accumulation of dust particles. The measured deposition densities\nof dust particles were found to range from 0.54 g/m2 to 0.85 g/m2 under the range of experimental\nconditions and the output power ratios were found to increase from 0.861 to 0.965 with the increase\nin the temperature difference from 0 to 50 ââ??¦C. The PV module with a higher temperature difference\nexperiences a lower dust density because of the effect of the thermophoresis force arising from\nthe temperature gradient between the module surface and its surrounding air. In addition, dust\nparticles have a significant impact on the short circuit current, as well as the output power. However,\nthe influence of particles on open circuit voltage can be negligible.
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