%0 Journal Article
%A Ford, Ethan
%A Peters, Ian Marius
%A Hoex, Bram
%T Quantifying the impact of wildfire smoke on solar photovoltaic generation in Australia
%J iScience
%V 27
%N 2
%@ 2589-0042
%C St. Louis
%I Elsevier
%M FZJ-2024-03624
%P 108611 -
%D 2024
%X The 2019–20 Australian wildfires caused extreme haze events across New South Wales (NSW), whichreduced photovoltaic (PV) power output. We analyze 30-min energy data from 160 geographicallyseparated residential PV systems in NSW with a total capacity of 312 kW from 6 Nov 2019–15 Jan2020. The observed mean power reduction rate for PV energy generation as a function of the fine par-ticulate matter (PM 2.5 ) concentration is 13 G 2% per 100 mg/m 3 of PM 2.5 . The resulting energy lossfor residential and utility PV systems is estimated at 175 G 35 GWh, equating to a worst-case financialloss of 19 G 4 million USD. We found the relative impact to be most significant in the mornings andevenings, which may necessitate the installation of additional energy storage. As PV systems are sen-sitive to smoke and become ubiquitous, we propose employing them to support wildfire detection andmonitoring.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ 38323003
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:001401419100001
%R 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108611
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1027071