Soiling on photovoltaic panels is a factor that has a significant
impact on the photovoltaic production. The monitoring of the soiling
index appears as a relevant alternative for the maintenance of solar
systems. This work proposes a soiling index modelling for photovoltaic
systems based on two input variables, namely the solar radiation and the
generated current, providing a simple, programmable and reliable way
to check the efficiency and be able to establish the parameters for cleaning
the system. The study was based on the adaptation of an existing
mathematical modelling, that besides to estimate the soiling index also
allows to establish an optimal point for cleaning. The proposed model is
compared with the results provided by the PVSyst software aiming its
validation. The achieved results show that, despite the developed system
only consider two input variables, it presents a low relative error,
i.e. 2.07%, when compared to the PVSyst software, allowing to conclude
that the proposed modelling system is valid and presents excellent reliability,
having a vast applicability in the monitoring of solar producers
of any model or size.
This work has been supported by FCT- Funda¸c˜ao para a Ciˆencia
e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UIDB/05757/2020
