Investigating the Impact of Dust and Air Pollution on Solar Panel Efficiency

The Project

This study investigates how dust and air pollution affect solar panel efficiency and explores a low-cost monitoring system for detecting performance loss. I hypothesized that increasing dust accumulation would reduce solar panel output in a non-linear pattern. To test this, three identical solar panels were exposed to different levels of flour coverage to simulate fine dust accumulation. One panel served as the control, while the other two had increasing dust coverage. Voltage output was measured under the same environmental conditions and compared to evaluate changes in energy production. The results showed that heavier dust coverage caused noticeably lower voltage output. Fine particles formed a dense, uniform layer that blocked sunlight more effectively, while coarser particles left gaps that allowed some light to reach the panel surface. Efficiency loss increased more rapidly as dust accumulation became heavier, supporting the hypothesis of a non-linear relationship. To expand the project, a real-time IoT-based solar monitoring system was developed using a Flutter mobile application, Firebase Realtime Database, an ESP32 microcontroller, and INA219 current-voltage sensors. The system tracks voltage, current, and power for multiple panels, provides secure device registration, and displays live performance data through interactive graphs. This project highlights how dust and pollution reduce renewable energy efficiency while demonstrating how accessible AI/IoT tools can help users monitor solar panel performance and improve maintenance decisions.

View this project on YouTube