FOTOTHERM

Scientists in the United States and India are investigating the impacts of soiling on PV installations in the Indian state of Gujarat. The group, which found that soiling losses for the state could add up to $12 million per year, is looking for low-cost ways to monitor and reduce the impacts of soiling on modules in the field. Image: Marai Kikai For dry and dusty regions in particular, soiling is a menace to PV performance. Soiling from dust and particulate matter buildup on a module’s surface is estimated to reduce a PV installation’s output by as much as 40% if left unchecked. And while effective solutions do exist, in the form of anti-soiling coatings for module glass and various module cleaning solutions, the whole PV industry can still benefit from a deeper understanding of the mechanisms at work in soiling. Scientists from Duke University in the United States, working alongside the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), recently conducted a field study to bring clarity to some of ...

[...] The anti-climate policies that the GWPF ( Global Warming Policy Foundation )  has pushed for years have contributed to the droughts, storms and surging temperatures that have killed people and destroyed livelihoods. Yet now they pretend to be Africa’s saviours, seeking out new markets for the ever more desperate coal industry. And coal barons are not alone: European-produced petrol, so dirty and polluting that it can’t be sold there, is being  dumped on to the Nigerian market . [...]  African prosperity will not come by it being shackled to the outdated dirty energy infrastructure of the past. Rather than trudging behind in the 50-year-old footsteps of European countries, Africa needs to leapfrog to the clean, cheap and renewable technologies of the future. This is how Africa will catch up with its global neighbours.  Africa  is blessed with more sun, wind and geothermal energy than anywhere else on the planet, but that fact does not help the GWPF or ...