Enhancement of Power Generation Efficiency Through the Addition of Self-Cleaning and Transmission-Enhancing Nanopolymer Multifunctional Coatings on Photovoltaic Panels

Abstract

The solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is continuously expanding within the context of dual-carbon goals. In this situation, the reflective losses occurring at the interface between the surface air and the PV modules, along with the accumulation of dust on the panels, result in a gradual decline in the conversion efficiency of the PV modules. In this study, a self-cleaning and transmission-enhancing multifunctional coating was fabricated through the sol-gel method, which can potentially enhance the power generation efficiency of photovoltaic solar panels. The results demonstrated that the multifunctional coating exhibited superhydrophilic characteristics, with a shallow water contact angle of merely 2.076° on its surface. Additionally, the anti-fogging test revealed its outstanding anti-fogging performance. In the visible light band ranging from 380 to 760 nm, the multifunctional coating boosted the light transmittance by 5%.Furthermore, the multifunctional coating successfully passed the 8 H pencil hardness and tape adhesion tests, indicating its excellent mechanical robustness in outdoor settings. During the surface resistance test, it was found that the multifunctional coating possessed a surface resistance within the range of 107 - 108 Ω, which significantly mitigated dust adhesion. Moreover, the multifunctional coating demonstrated a high photocatalytic degradation capacity. Eventually, it was determined that applying the multifunctional coating to photovoltaic solar panels led to a 1.24% increase in power generation. Consequently, the multifunctional coating prepared in this study can be applied to the surface of photovoltaic modules to eliminate dust and dirt from the surface and enhance power generation efficiency, thus holding good application prospects in other relevant fields.

Keywords: Superhydrophilic, self-cleaning, Photovoltaic (PV), coating