Soiling Sensor for Community and Commercial Solar Plants
Soiling sensors that require no maintenance are ideal for community, commercial, and other distributed solar installations. Regular visits from operations and maintenance (O&M) teams to clean sensors can be prohibitively expensive. The Mars Optical Soiling Sensor is the perfect solution for small-scale solar installations.
- No maintenance, no washing, no cleaning and no calibration
- Compact housing and simple installation
Mars Optical Soiling Sensor
The Mars Optical Soiling Sensor measures soiling without the need for cleaning or local calibration. It is easily installed in the plane of array (POA) and collects data once per day. The innovative technology of Mars includes an internal camera and software algorithm that detects dust particles and outputs a soiling ratio.
Modbus RTU Communication
The Mars sensor uses Modbus RTU over RS485 for communication. This is the industry-standard serial communication protocol for industrial sensors. Power and communication are transmitted through shielded M12 5-pin cables, which connect to a DC power supply and a data logging system. Modbus RTU allows multiple devices to be connected to the same communication bus.
Data Acquisition
The Mars sensor outputs a single soiling ratio once per day. See Fig[1] for an example of Mars soiling data. There are many options for data loggers with remote monitoring solutions. Typically, data is transmitted to the internet via a cellular connection, although Wi-Fi communication may be more accessible for small-scale solar installations. Contact us to discuss more details.
Ref [1]: “Field Testing of Mars™ Soiling Sensor” by Michael Gostein, Ben Bourne, Fabrizio Farina, Bill Stueve, 2020, IEEE 47th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)