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Evaluation of Low-Cost Hydrophobic Coatings in the Performance of Photovoltaic Modules

Superficial dust deposition on photovoltaic modules significantly and negatively impacts their power generation capacity and consequent associated economic losses. As a result, photovoltaic module coating techniques by hydrophobic coatings were developed in order to allow natural cleaning, due to the action of rain, without the need for external interference in the system through the common method of cleaning, that requires labor, investments, materials and tools. Besides that, cleaning may eventually damage the structure of the photovoltaic modules. Therefore, this technique aims to improve the performance of photovoltaic modules by mitigating the process of dust adhesion on the transparent surface of the modules, avoiding the gradual loss of energy generation capacity by reducing the absorption of solar radiation. This paper set out to study the impact of low-cost hydrophobic coatings usually used in automotive applications since the coatings already studied for this specific purpose are relatively expensive. The power generation capacity of coated modules was experimentally analyzed over three months, and before and after significant rainfall events. The results indicated the occurrence of metrologically irrelevant variation in power generation over time and after each rain event. Therefore, the effects of the analyzed coatings are negligible for photovoltaic modules power generation capacity.