Development of A Quantification Method for The Impact of Wildfire Smoke on Photovoltaic Systems

Understanding the impact of wildfire smoke on photovoltaic (PV) systems is critical for the reliability and stability of power systems with the increasing PV penetration and wildfire events. However, this problem has not been widely discussed and studied in the existing literature. One of the significant challenges for this study is the quantification of the smoke. Because of the wildfire smoke elevation, dynamics, and nonlinear effects on solar spectral irradiance, traditional methods such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) and PM 2.5 cannot be utilized to quantify the impact of wildfire smoke on PV systems accurately. In this study, a novel method is developed using the optical properties of wildfire smoke, and an approach based on PV devices’ spectral response (SR) is presented to estimate the theoretical PV power output reduction. The outcome of this study can precisely measure the power output reduction caused by wildfire smoke for different types of PV cells. This developed method can be adopted for power systems operation and planning to ensure the stability and reliability of the power grids. Besides, this paper also shows that different PV cell technologies need to be considered for high wildfire-risk areas to minimize the power reduction caused by wildfire smoke.