Speaker: Mike Bergin, Duke University |

Seminar Title: Assessing the impact of dust and air pollution on solar energy production: The need for a combined global modeling and field measurement approach |

Abstract: Recent work combining field measurements and global modeling to estimate the influence of dust and PM related to anthropogenic sources (e.g. fossil and biomass fuel combustion) indicates that solar energy production is currently reduced by ~ 17-25% world wide, with roughly equal contributions from ambient PM and PM deposited to photovoltaic surfaces. The monetary impact is estimated to be in the 10’s of billions of dollars in lost solar energy production annually. Much of the reduction takes places in dusty and/or polluted regions of the World. State-of-the-art global models are able to estimate the deposition of PM to solar panel surfaces but at this time
the overall impact is highly uncertain for a number of reasons including lack of validation of the modeled deposition fluxes, optical properties of deposited particles, and the theoretical framework used to estimate reductions in transmittance at PV surfaces due to deposited PM. With this in mind I will discuss recent work at Duke focusing on the development of low-cost sensors to monitor ambient PM and solar panel soiling that we plan to deploy at locations within the US and in regions where PM has a substantial impact on solar energy production (i.e. the Arabian Peninsula, China, and India). I will also discuss future work that will include a more sophisticated modelling approach to estimate reductions in solar energy production due to both dust and air pollution deposited PM.

Bio: Mike Bergin is a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University. His general research focus is on the influence of air pollution on both climate and human health, and specifically particulate matter (PM). He has done a wide range of studies on the emission, formation, deposition and impacts of PM and is particularly interested in how PM impacts climate. More recently he has been studying the influence of PM on human health and is also involved in developing and deploying the next generation of air quality sensors to inform citizens on the quality of the air they breathe. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) in Boulder, CO and has received several awards for his work including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest award given to young scientists and engineers in the US.