N. India Rapidly Deploying Large-Scale Solar, But Smog & Dust Block Sun, Cut Output By 17%
Dirty air is choking India’s quest for clean energy. High levels of environmental pollutants and dust in northern India are expected to reduce the region’s solar power generation capacity by around 17%, a new study published in the Environmental Science & Technology Letters journal says. India’s northern plains are dotted with a number of heavily polluted cities, including New Delhi, which has worse air quality than almost anywhere else in the world.
At current levels, particulate matter (PM)—either airborne or deposited on solar panels—could wipe out nearly 776 megawatt (MW) of solar power, which is more than the capacity of India’s largest solar plant.
The study was initiated after Michael Bergin, a professor at Duke University, noticed that some rooftop solar installations in India were incredibly dirty. “I thought the dirt had to affect their efficiencies, but there weren’t any studies out there estimating the losses,” he told a university publication. “So we put together a comprehensive model to do just that.”
Along with researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bergin began collecting samples from multiple solar panels located at IIT-Gandhinagar. They found that the efficiency of the panels would improve by nearly 50% when they were cleaned after certain periods of time.
EDIT
https://qz.com/1017635/indias-dreadful-pollution-is-blocking-sunlight-and-threatening-its-booming-solar-sector/