Soiling is a phenomenon wherein dust gets deposited on PV modules over a period of time. It causes significant energy losses thereby limiting us from harnessing the available solar potential. Soiling is a geographical phenomenon and studying it on the field is highly time consuming and expensive. it has been observed that Mumbai is facing 0.4% per day soiliing loss. A need, therefore, arises to develop soiling chambers which can emulate the natural climatic conditions and deposit dust of varied composition and particle size on the test samples.

At NCPRE, the module reliability group led by Prof Narendra Shiradkar & Prof Anil Kottantharayil has developed two low-cost chambers to simulate 1. warm and humid & 2. hot and dry climatic conditions. A third chamber has been developed which simulates both the above climatic conditions. These chambers can deposit dust with uniformity of around 95% on samples of sizes ranging from 2.5 x 2.5 cm2 & 22 × 22 cm2. Soiling losses can thus be studied in these chambers and better cleaning methods/ anti-soiling coatings can be developed.