Clean Techn Environ Policy

DOI 10.1007/s10098-016-1233-9

ORIGINAL PAPER

Reducing dust effects on photovoltaic panels by hydrophobic

coating
Mohamed Fathi1 Mahfoud Abderrezek1 Mike Friedrich2

Received: 12 April 2016 / Accepted: 2 June 2016

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Abstract This work aims at developing reliable solar

technologies for regions characterized by hot climate and
with high dust density, which are considered as significant
constraints to the development of high-performance photovoltaic systems in the Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) regions. After reviewing actual technologies to
solve these issues in MENA region, where water is considered a precious resource, a proposal to apply a
nanocoating on photovoltaic panels in a simple and costeffective way is examined. Experimentations realized
under control of optical and electrical benches revealed a
considerable gain in light transmission and open circuit
voltage, respectively. A thermoelectric analysis demonstrated that nanocoated photovoltaic (PV) modules are
running cooler than untreated ones. This behavior is due to
hot spot caused by shading effects of dusts in case of
uncoated PV panels. The tested hydrophobic coating layer
reduces these issues and solves the problems of dust and
electrical losses.
Keywords Coating  Dust  Energy  Hot spot 
Hydrophobic  Photovoltaic

& Mohamed Fathi

dr_fathimohamed@yahoo.fr
Mike Friedrich
mike.friedrich@cenano.de
1

Unite de Developpement des Equipements Solaires, UDES/

Centre de Developpement des Energies Renouvelables,
CDER, 42415 Tipaza, Algeria

CeNano GmbH & Co. KG, Paul-Huber-Strae 5,

84405 Dorfen, Germany

Introduction
Dusts and high temperatures are constraints to the development of high-performance photovoltaic systems in the
MENA region (Parajuli et al. 2016; Darwish et al. 2015;
Krarti and Ihm 2016), where high temperatures and sandstorms reduce light transmission which conduct to reducing
energy production of PV plants. Therefore, it becomes an
important need for the development of innovative and
suitable cost-effective solar technology solutions in this
area (MENA regions) (Cucchiella and DAdamo 2015). As
shown in previous studies, for desert and semiarid regions,
the cleaning cost is very high, which implies an increase in
the maintenance and operating costs of PV power plants
and subsequently of energy (Shahin 2013; Petrakopoulou
2014). This increase in cost has raised the interest in
proposing solutions to the utilization of solar panels in
dusty and polluted environments (desert region, sea side,
urban, etc.). In this paper, application of self-cleaning
coatings on solar panels is proposed and experimented. In
this study, experimental results are presented relatively to
testing of coated glasses by self-cleaning thin films.
Additionally, the beneficial effects of this method on light
transmittance of the photovoltaic modules are also
discussed.
Table 1 lists the experimental values of parameters in
the summer season, in the sea side region of Algeria (Tipaza), and the obtained electrical parameters are rated at
Standard Test Conditions (STC). Thus, remarkable
decreases were noticed in PV modules parameters only
after 2 months of operation without cleaning which are in
correlation with soiling high level from the Dust density
world map (Maghami et al. 2016) and motivate research
works of this paper. Indeed, these decreases are 16.2 % for
maximum Power (Pmax), 6.6 % for short-circuit current

123

M. Fathi et al.
Table 1 Decrease in performance values of PV panels after 2 months of operation without cleaning (Tipaza, Algeria, sea side region)
Parameters at STC

Test clean PV
29-06-2014

Test dusty PV
07-09-2014

Parameters derating (%)

Manufacturer PV
parameters

Pmax (W)

Maximum power

158.4

132.7

16.2

160

Isc (A)

Short-circuit current

6.6

5.12

Voc (V)

Open circuit voltage

5.44

5.08

42.5

37.9

(Isc), and 10.8 % for Open circuit voltage (Voc). The

decrease of Pmax and Isc is understandable because of
light transmission losses due to dust covering the glass of
PV panels. However, the important decrease about 10.8 %
of Voc is not clear because the Voc voltage is more linked
to junction temperature rather than light intensity. The Voc
voltage is given by Eq. 1 (Sze 1981; Xiao et al. 2014):


AkT
JL
VOC
ln 1
;
1
q
J0
where A is the ideality factor of the p-n junction diode, JL
is photogenerated current under lighting, and J0 is the dark
current density given by Eq. 2:


Eg
3
J0 K 0 T n exp 
;
2
mkT
where K0 is an empirical parameter, k is Boltzmanns
constant, m and n are empirical parameters depending on
the quality of the material and the junction. The increase of
J0 is mainly due to the increase of the intrinsic carrier
concentration (Paranthaman et al. 2016; Boer 2013). The
density of the short-circuit current density (Jsc) varies
proportionally with the illumination (Jsc = JL = HF)
(where H is a constant and F the luminous flux).
Jcc q r F kf1  RkgIQEkdk;

where F(k) is the density of incident flux on a unit area per

unit time (the number of photons with energy in the range
of [E, E ? dE]), R(k) is the reflection coefficient from the
upper surface, and IQE is the internal quantum efficiency
of the solar cell (only the photons that are not reflected).
In the following experiments, focus attention are given
in order to have a better knowledge for explaining this
important Voc losses in dusty panels.

123

42

methods: natural, mechanical, self-cleaning by nanocoatings, and electrostatic (He et al. 2011; Zhou et al. 2015).
Natural method: it is based on the combination between
the position of the solar panel and wind speed and the
amount of rain. This type of system was studied by Gair
et al. (Gaier et al. 1990; Gaier and Davis 1992), and it
works well for small installations, but with major central
management it becomes complicated. Mechanical method
is based on the use of three techniques which are brushing,
blowing, and ultrasonic vibration waves. The brushing
technique is designed for small installations; in addition, it
conducts to an increase in the energy consumption, but this
cleaning technique cannot be used in sites where dust
density is very high. It requires a lot of maintenance as
there is a risk of the module surfaces getting damaged by
brushing. Recent work on this type of system was made by
Nomad society (Nomad 2016; Deutsche Gesellshaft Fur
Sonnenenergie 2008). In blowing technique, the air is
blown to clean the surface of the module but organic dusts
are the weak point of this type of system. Dust cleaning
with the application of ultrasonic vibration waves is currently being used for cleaning the PV modules (Williams
et al. 2007), and it uses the piezoelectric effect to provide
an ultrasonic self-cleaning PV panels. The third method is
self-cleaning by nanocoatings method. This type of
cleaning is based on coating the PV module surface with
nanostructured materials; the obtained surface can take two
new forms, either super hydrophobic or hydrophilic (Giolando. 2016; Khalilzadeh and Fatemi. 2014). The type of
material and the deposition method play an important role:

State of the art in PV plant cleaning methods

Cleaning of photovoltaic modules is often used to increase
their efficiencies; it plays a very important role especially
for large PV installations and also to isolated sites; the use
of water in conventional methods increases the maintenance
costs of these facilities which increases the back price of the
kilowatt hour (Lopez-Garcia et al. 2016; Elnozahy et al.
2015; Yao and He 2014). There are 4 types of cleaning

10.8

Super hydrophilic coating: one of the materials used in

this method is TiO2, which makes the surface
hydrophilic and also activates the photocatalytic effect
that destroys organic wastes on the PV module with the
use of UV energy with a small amount of water (Bai
et al. 2016; La Russa et al. 2016; Lin 2013).
Super hydrophobic coating: this approach uses the lotus
effect where small water drops afford to pick up a large
amount of dust. After microstructuring treatment, the
water contact angle was found to reach up to 150, and
the concept of self-cleaning with super hydrophobic
surface is studied for the first time by Barthlott and
Neinhuis (Barthlott and Neinhuis 1997; Shirgholami
et al. 2015; George et al. 2016).

Reducing dust effects on photovoltaic panels by hydrophobic coating

Electrostatic method: this form of cleaning was previously studied by F. B. Tatom et al. in collaboration with
NASA1967 after it was developed with the University of
Tokyo. Its principle is repulsing electrically charged dusts
by electrostatic field (Kawamoto and Shibata 2013, 2015).
Figure 1 shows the main PV panel cleaning methods.

Experimental
In this section, coating procedures are described for
deposition of self-cleaning coating by nanopolymers. Then,
the applied experimental benches for optical and thermoelectrical analyses are presented.
Coating procedures
The soiling of PV module glass is the phenomenon of dust
deposition on PV glass: the dust particles are loaded in air
as aerosols (Ortore and Francione 2008), pollens, sand
grains, birds dirt, etc. When these particles accumulate on
glasses of PV panels, it is difficult to remove if no cleaning
is regularly practised. In order to avoid the soiling on PV
modules, several trails have been conducted by using a
hydrophobic coating material from a commercial provider
(nanotol). The deposition process steps of this
hydrophobic coating, shown in Fig. 2, are as follows:

First, cleaning the glass with distilled water and

detergents.
Second, cleaning the glass with concentrated nanotol
Primer solution (CeNano 2016).
Finally, cleaning the glass with diluted nanotol Primer
solution in order to have a perfect surface to be sealed
by the hydrophobic layer. The glass is then dried using
a microfiber weeper.
Spraying a thin film of nanotol Sealant solution on to
the cleaned glass which is kept 10 min before polishing
using a specific microfiber weeper (CeNano 2016).

Keeping the treated glass in a clean place for 48 h

before exposure to outdoor conditions.

Thermoelectrical acquisition Bench

First, 2 identical PV modules of 20 W power have been
selected and it was confirmed that their electrical parameters match to Standard Test Conditions using IV measurement bench. The instrumentation of this bench allows
acquisition of all electrical parameters of PV module under
solar lighting, and it is coupled to a variable electronic
load, weather radiation station, Thermocouples and computer with specific software that allow to make data
acquisition and calculate the output parameters of PV
module. After that, one of the two PV modules was coated
by a hydrophobic layer following steps described
in Coating Procedures section and Fig. 2. Then, measurements of open circuit voltage (Voc) and backside PV
modules Temperature (T-back) were conducted. Electrical
characteristics of primary-state cleaned PV modules are
shown in Table 2.
As shown in Fig. 3, on the roof of a research building in
studied site, a thermoelectrical bench for PV panels
parameters acquisition was installed. The 2 PV panels are
oriented in the south direction and 37 tilted to obtain
maximum power relatively to the latitude position of
studied site. Indeed, with inclination equal to position latitude (37), the PV panels deliver their high performance
because at noon the sun rays fall perpendicularly to the
front side of module. A data acquisition instrument of
Hydra Fluke-series II allowed us to measure the Voc and
T-back parameters continually during the day.
Optical test bench
For testing transmission of glass samples coated by
hydrophobic material, an optical test bench was developed
at Lab scale as described in Fig. 4. It is composed of a

PV Panels Cleaning Methods

Natural method
(Wind, Rainwater)

Electrostatic
method

Mechanical method

1st technic: Brushing

Self-Cleaning by
Nano Coatings method
1st technic: Super-hydrophilic
Coating

2nd technic: Air Blowing

3rd technic: Vibrating and ultrasonic

2nd technic: Super-hydrophobic

Coating

Fig. 1 Establishment of the main PV panel cleaning methods

123

M. Fathi et al.

1st
Cleaning
with
distilled
water and
detergeant
s

3rd
Cleaning
by diluted
nanotol
Primer
solution

2nd
Cleaning
by using
nanotol
Primer

Drying by
using
microfib
weeper

Spray of
nanotol
Sealant
solution

10
minutes
After

Polishing
by a
specific
microfib
weeper

Keeping
in clean
place for
48hours

Fig. 2 Illustration of hydrophobic nanocoating steps

Table 2 PV modules electrical parameters at Standard Test

Conditions
Parameters

Value

Pmax (W)

Maximum power

20

Imax (A)

Maximum current

1.14

Vmax (V)

Maximum voltage

17.6

Isc (A)

Short-circuit current

1.26

Voc (V)

Open circuit voltage

21.7

samples and PV modules were carried out at an angle of

37 corresponding to optimum PV module inclination for
our region (Algiers, latitude &37). The value of 5 g/m2
was taken from Shahin (2013), where it was recorded as an
average measure of dust load at typical MENA areas. Thus,
the following tests for dusty panels have been made with
this last value of dust load.

Optical and hydrophobicity test results

3
2
1

Fig. 3 Outdoor bench for testing of PV modules. 1 PC, 2 Data

Logger Hydra, 3 PV Module 20Watts, 4 Thermocouples (k) types

To verify the hydrophobicity behavior of deposited coating, the contact angle of a water droplet has been measured.
For this purpose, pictures of water droplets on treated and
untreated glass surfaces were captured by means of highresolution optical microscope (Dino-Elite AM-4113TL).
From Fig. 6a, b, an important increase of water droplet
contact angle can be observed. Also, the effect on dusty
surfaces is shown in Fig. 7; where it can be observed the
clean wake of the water.
In order to experimentally study the light transmission
coefficient versus wavelength, the optical bench described
before is applied; the tests results are shown in Fig. 8. The
transmission coefficient (T) is defined by the following
formula (Goetzberger et al. 1998; Snieder 2004):
T k

Spectrophotometer CL500A which measures light spectrum from 360 to 780 nm, a source lights, a computer for
data acquisition, and black box to avoid any parasitic
source lights.

Results and discussion

After depositing the hydrophobic coating on glass samples
and one of the two PV modules, running of optical and
thermoelectrical characterizations by benches of Figs. 3
and 4 described below were practised. The goal is to
compare the behavior of treated and untreated pieces of
glass (10 9 10 cm2) and PV modules under dust and water
droplet deposition. After forced dust deposition (5 g/m2) in
specially designed test bench sketched in Fig. 5, the glass

123

I k
;
I0 k

where k is the wavelength, I0 is the source light intensity,

and I the light intensity after crossing the glass sheet.
In case of treated glass, a higher transmission coefficient
has been successfully obtained. Experimentally, an average
gap of 3.73 % between treated and untreated clean glass is
measured. On the other hand, this gap of transmission is
widened in case of dusty glass and became 8.53 % in our
previous conditions of forced dust deposition (5 g/m2).
Also, it was noticed that for each glass type (treated or
untreated) the dust conducts to evidently transmission
decreases but in more gently way in case of treated glass.
To understand and explain these beneficial behaviors of the
treated glass by hydrophobic coating, the refraction index
(n) was calculated. In fact, the reflection coefficient (R) is
given by the Fresnels formula (Schneck 2009):

Reducing dust effects on photovoltaic panels by hydrophobic coating

40 cm

A
30 cm

120 cm

10 cm

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4 Optical testing bench. a Real picture, b synoptic diagram (A spectrophotometer CL500A, B black box, C glass sample under test, D light
source, E PC data acquisition)

R
D

Fig. 5 Synoptic diagram dust deposition. A Air Compressor, B room

containing dust, C Glass, D Canalization



n2  n1 2
;
n2 n1

where n1 and n2 are the refractive indexes of first and

second medium, respectively, to the light propagation. In
case of uncoated PV glass, n2 is the air refractive index
(n2 = 1) and n1 is the glass index (n1 = 1.5), thus
R = 4 %. On the other hand, for the coated glass,
n2 = 1.33 (nanotol coated layer), and consequently,
R = 2 % for the interface air/nanotol and R = 0.36 %
between the interface nanotol/glass. Therefore, the reflection was decreased which enhance transmission coefficient

Fig. 6 Water droplet contact angle test. a Untreated glass, b treated glass

123

M. Fathi et al.

Fig. 7 Water effect on dusty glass surface. a Untreated glass,

b treated glass

(T). This is in accordance with the obtained results from

Fig. 8. The nanocoating layer acts as an antireflection
coating (CAR) by adjusting the refractive index between
air and glass.
Electrical and thermal behavior test results

102
100
98
96
94
92
90
88
86
84
82
80
78
76
300

Cost analysis of proposal for self-cleaning

by nanocoatings on PV panels
The cleaning cost is an important parameter to take into
account for optimizing operating and maintenance
(O&M) cost of PV installations. In fact, installation site
affects the nature and quantity of accumulated soiling,
and for that PV power plants installed in Saharan environment are different comparatively to those made in
agricultural or urban region. The dust nature could be
minerals (mineral grains: quartz, silica; sand grains:

100
95
90
85

T(%)

T(%)

By applying the thermoelectrical bench previously described in Fig. 3, Voc and T-back parameters were recorded,
from treated and untreated PV modules between
09 h 30 Am and 03 h 30 Pm during a summer day. The
obtained results plotted in Fig. 9 showed a lower back
module temperature (T-back) and higher voltage (Voc) in
case of dusty and treated PV module. This seems to give a
beneficial effect of applied coating. Comparatively, the
voltage of open circuit (Voc) and the backside temperature
(T-back) of PV panels during the day are recorded in Fig. 9
, while in Fig. 10 we have plotted the voltage variation
(Voc) versus backside PV panel temperature which are
acquired from experimental measures in real time, plotted
in Fig. 9. After that, we calculated the slope coefficient of a
linear fitting as shown in Fig. 10voltage loss coefficient

versus temperature (DVoc/DT-back). Then, values of

-32.3 mv/C for treated module and 36.4 for untreated one
were obtained. It is very important to determine this
parameter for forecasting PV module behavior with the
increase in temperature. Then, it will be possible to predict
PV modules energy production in hot temperature of
MENA sites. Also, experimentally obtained values for
voltage losses versus temperature demonstrate that nanocoated PV modules by self-cleaning nonmaterial will have
better behavior in hot climate.
In order to confirm previous results about temperature of
PV modules, a thermal camera FLIR-T335 with thermal
image quality of 320 9 240 pixels was applied which
gives the temperature profile of module as shown in
Fig. 11. So, we found that nanocoated PV module is cooler
than uncoated one. To explain this observed phenomenon,
we schematically represented the dust residues shadowing
effect on PV glass in Fig. 12. This represents the hot spot
created by the dusts particles shadowing cells of PV
module (Solheim et al. 2013; Perez and Gorji 2016). These
microshadows decrease the light intensity locally on cells
and create the hot spot on PV module which increase the
module temperature and then decrease the open voltage
circuit.

Untreated glass
Treated glass

80
75
65

The average variation is :3,73%

400

500

600

700

800

The average variation is :8,78%

60
55
300

400

500

600

700

Wavelengh(nm)

Wavelengh(nm)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 8 Experimental results for transmission study. a Clean glasses, b dusty glasses

123

Dusty Untreated glass

Dusty Treated

70

800

Reducing dust effects on photovoltaic panels by hydrophobic coating

62
21,2
60
21,0

58

20,8

Voc(Volt)

T(C)

56
54
52

20,4
20,2

50

20,0

48
46

20,6

Dusty untreated PV module

Dusty treated PV module

19,8

44
10:33 11:02 11:31 12:00 12:28 12:57 13:26 13:55 14:24 14:52 15:21

Dusty treated PV module

Dusty untreated PV module

19,6
10:33 11:02 11:31 12:00 12:28 12:57 13:26 13:55 14:24 14:52 15:21

Time(h:min)

Time(h:min)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 9 Recorded Voc and T-back values of dusty PV modules during summer day (July 7, 2015). a T-Back, b Voc
20,7

20,7
Treated PV module

Voc(Volt)

20,6

Untreated PV module

20,6

Linaire Fit

20,5

20,5

20,4

20,4

20,3

20,3

20,2

20,2

20,1

20,1

20,0

20,0

19,9

y = -0,0323x + 22,127
50

55

19,9
60

Linaire Fit

y = -0,0364x + 22,168
50

55

T-back(C)

T-back(C)

(a)

(b)

60

Fig. 10 Loss coefficient of voltage Voc versus temperature improved by nanotreatment. a Treated PV module, b untreated PV module

stone, etc.) or organic matter (pollen, bird waste, etc.)

and mud. The knowledge of these parameters is helpful
for choosing the appropriate cleaning method. Each
method of cleaning will have a specific cost. Cleaning
methods with robot machines allowed a discount of
50 % in fees comparatively to cleaning by hand (Jones
et al. 2016). Anyway, the cleaning cost depends on
number of repeated cycles (by Year or Month). However, the proposal of self-cleaning method by
hydrophobic coating is beneficial with the tested product

from nanotol including its application labor, for a total

price of about 0.72 Euros/m2, where the treatment is
valid for 2 years at least (Nanotol 2016). Thus, it is 0.36
Euros/m2/year. From reference 4, where climatic condition is matched with our region (North Africa), we calculated the cost for cleaning one square meter by
conventional method in large-scale PV plants ([1 MW);
it is 2.25 Euros/m2/year. Therefore, by using nanocoating
proposal, we obtain 1.89 Euros/m2/year, which is
equivalent to about 18.900 Euros/1 MW/year.

123

M. Fathi et al.

Untreated
PV Module

which is equivalent to about 18.900 Euros/1 MW/year. This

result allows predicting that nanocoated PV modules energy
production will be very beneficial for hot temperature of
MENA sites and where large-scale nanocoated PV plants
could be installed.

Nanotoled
PV Module

References

Fig. 11 Visualization by FLIR thermal camera

2
5
4

Fig. 12 Schematic diagram of hotspot Principe. 1 Soil, 2 sunlight, 3

shadowed area, 4 PV glass, 5 solar cell, 6 thermal losses

Conclusion
Some solutions responding to reliability and efficiency
issues caused by dusty environment on PV panels have been
examined with application of hydrophobic nanocoating.
Experimental results of optical and thermoelectrical benches
showed an increase of light transmission and open circuit
voltage in nanocoated PV panels. However, it was find out
that dusty panels have an increase of their temperature which
explained losses in the voltage (Voc). Also, experimentally
obtained values for voltages losses versus temperature
demonstrate that nanocoated PV modules by self-cleaning
nonmaterial will have better behavior in hot climate of
MENA region. By a first effect, dust conducts to a decrease in
short-circuit current by the reduction of light transmission.
Then, by a second effect, Hot Spot phenomenon, localized
on shading area of PV panel, contributes to the increase of
temperature. Deposition of hydrophobic layer implies a
graduated refractive index of glass module surface which
improves light transmission and at the same time reduces
dust accumulation and then hot spotting phenomenon. By
using nanocoating proposal, we obtain 1.89 Euros/m2/year,

123

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