Abstract
The subject of this work is the analysis of methods of detecting soiling of photovoltaic panels. Environmental and weather conditions affect the efficiency of renewable energy sources. Accumulation of soil, dust, and dirt on the surface of the solar panels reduces the power generated by the panels. This paper presents several variants of the algorithm that uses various statistical classifiers to classify photovoltaic panels in terms of soiling. The base material was high-resolution photos and videos of solar panels and sets dedicated to solar farms. The classifiers were tested and analyzed in their effectiveness in detecting soiling. Based on the study results, a group of optimal classifiers was defined, and the classifier selected that gives the best results for a given problem. The results obtained in this study proved experimentally that the proposed solution provides a high rate of correct detections. The proposed innovative method is cheap and straightforward to implement, and allows use in most photovoltaic installations.