Impact of accumulated dust particles' charge on the photovoltaic module performance

•We analyse the effect of dust particles' charge on the PV module performance.•We developed test bench for charge measurement of dust particles on PV module.•We obtained a relationship between the charge level & PV module output voltage.

This work is focused on analysing effect of accumulated dust particles' charge on PV module performance. In the Dundee University's laboratory, dust particles have been created through epoxy powder and charged by using corona and tribo-electric charging methods by varying the charge levels of the accumulated dust particles. The PV module output has analysed for finding a relation between charge levels of the accumulated dust particles and its output voltage. Obtained experimental results have shown that charge level of accumulated dust particles on PV module's have significant impact on its output and dust particle accumulations are not associated with panel tilt angle.