RT Journal Article
T1 Physicochemical characterization of soiling from photovoltaic facilities in arid locations in the Atacama Desert
A1 Ferrada, Pablo
A1 Olivares, Douglas
A1 del Campo, Valeria
A1 Marzo, Aitor
A1 Araya, Francisco
A1 Cabrera, Enrique
A1 Llanos, Jaime
A1 Correa-Puerta, Jonathan
A1 Portillo, Carlos
A1 Román Silva, Domingo
A1 Trigo-González, Mauricio
A1 Alonso Montesinos, Joaquín
A1 López Rodríguez, Gabriel
A1 Polo, Jesús
A1 Batlles, Francisco J.
A1 Fuentealba, Edward
AB Soiling is an issue that impacts the performance of photovoltaic (PV) technologies as it attenuates the amount of solar resource reaching the solar cells. The chemical composition of the soil is essential to define cleaning strategies of photovoltaic companies. This paper reports the characterization of the chemical and physical properties of the soiling deposited on photovoltaic modules located in the Atacama Desert. The particle size, shape and chemical composition of dust were studied at 4 different locations (denoted as L1 to L4) with samples taken from the ground and the module surface. It was found that, most deposited material exhibits a diameter between 1 µm and 60 µm. The determination of the particle shape factor shows that smaller particles tend to have a circular appearance, while larger particles exhibit a prismatic form. These small particles show a shape factor close to 1 and occur at the 4 locations with the greatest frequency, 40–70%. The mineral species in both the deposited and ground dust, which were identified by means of X-ray diffraction, were albite, anorthite, calcite, cristobalite, gypsum, halite, quartz, muscovite and orthoclase. The compounds occurring with the highest frequency in both the module and ground dust at all locations were quartz and anorthite. Differences between the locations were found. Calcite was found only at L3. Gypsum was not detected at L1 and L3 but was present in L2 and L4. Similarly, cristobalite was found only at L1 and L3, halite was found at L2 and L3, and muscovite was found at L1 and L2.
PB Elsevier
YR 2019
FD 2019-07-15
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/24511
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/24511
LA eng
NO Pablo Ferrada, Douglas Olivares, Valeria del Campo, Aitor Marzo, Francisco Araya, Enrique Cabrera, Jaime Llanos, Jonathan Correa-Puerta, Carlos Portillo, Domingo Román Silva, Mauricio Trigo-Gonzalez, Joaquín Alonso-Montesinos, Gabriel López, Jesús Polo, Francisco Javier Batlles, Edward Fuentealba, Physicochemical characterization of soiling from photovoltaic facilities in arid locations in the Atacama Desert, Solar Energy, Volume 187, 2019, Pages 47-56, ISSN 0038-092X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.05.034.
NO The authors acknowledge MINEDUC-UA project codes ANT 1755, CONICYT/FONDAP/15110019 “Solar Energy Research Center” SERC-Chile, the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO) with contract No 17PTECES-75830 under the framework of the project “AtaMoSTeC” and the Unidad de Equipamiento Científico “MAINI” of the Universidad Católica del Norte for the support in the preparation of samples, analysis and generation of data through the XRD team, andFIC-Regional Project EQU-25 Conicyt 2009-2010. In addition, we acknowledge at international level the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, Germany) for their “Solar Collaboration between Chile and Deutschland (Solar Child)” project No 01DN14005, as well as the Spanish Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness “PVcastsoil” project N° ENE2017-83790-C3-1-2-3-R in collaboration with the European Regional Development Fund.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 1 jun 2026