Experimental analysis of Anti-Reflective coating performance in desert Climate: Yield analysis, soiling impact and cleaning durability evaluation

The objective of this paper is to experimentally evaluate the performance of a commercial single layer inverse porous silica Anti-reflective coating (ARC) system when installed in desert locations. Three aspects were evaluated: the first aimed to assess the electrical performance by comparing the yield of a non-coated PV module with the AR-coated one. The second focused on analyzing the impact of soiling on the optical properties of ARC glass samples and comparing them to the uncoated ones. Lastly, a laboratory linear abrasion test was conducted to evaluate the durability of the investigated commercial ARC coating against long-term dry cleaning. In addition to the technical investigation, an economic analysis was conducted to better evaluate the feasibility of ARC integration under desert climates. The results indicate that the investigated ARC panels exhibit superior electrical performance, with a PR higher by relatively 2 % compared to the non-coated ones. Moreover, the ARC glass samples demonstrate good optical performance against soiling, with a Soiling Losses (SL) relatively lower by 3.7 % compared to non-coated samples for the same exposure period. Regarding the abrasion test, the investigated ARC coating exhibited relatively good durability, with a transmittance loss (Tloss) of only 2.6 % after 1500 brushing cycles. This is equivalent to 28.8 years of weekly cleaning from the initial state. The findings also demonstrate that the implementation of ARC panels can significantly benefit desert locations as they can enhance the power plant's production by 5 %, resulting in a 2.7 % drop in the LCOE compared to the uncoated modules.