Air pollution impacts solar panels’ output

Washington, Aug. 30: The findings of a recent study show that air pollution has a substantial effect on the output of solar panels.

After initially collecting data on both the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground, and the amount of particulate matter in the air as measured by other instruments, Ian Marius Peters worked with Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT) associate professor of mechanical engineering Tonio Buonassisi and three others to find a way to calculate the amount of sunlight that was being absorbed or scattered by haze before reaching the solar panels.

Eventually, they were able to collect data in Delhi, India, providing measures of insolation and of pollution over a two- year period — and confirmed significant reductions in the solarpanel output.

But unlike Singapore, what they found was that “in Delhi it's constant. There's never a day without pollution”, Peters said.

There, they found the annual average level of attenuation of the solar panel output was about 12 per cent.

While that might not sound like such a large amount, Peters pointed out that it is larger than the profit margins for some solar installations, and thus could be enough to make the difference between a project and one that fails — not only impacting that project, but also causing a ripple effect. — ANI