Substantial reduction of solar photovoltaic potential in China by an extreme dust event

Aerosols suspended in the atmosphere and deposited on solar panels reduce the solar power generation through dimming and soiling effects, respectively. Here we evaluate the impact of a six-day extreme dust event in March 2021 on the solar photovoltaic potential using an atmospheric chemical transport model integrated with a radiative transfer and a photovoltaic estimation module. The solar photovoltaic potential is found to be substantially reduced by up to 70% during this event, with the dimming effect accounting for 84-89% of the reduction and the soiling effect contributing about 16%. The estimated economic loss for the large-scale photovoltaic facilities in the affected regions is around 1.36 million American dollars, accounting for half of the installed capacity. Our results further reveal the intensified dust impact on photovoltaic potential under the control of anthropogenic emissions, which highlights the possibly stronger threat of future dust events on solar power generation under future cleaner atmosphere. Extremely high levels of dust emissions can reduce the solar photovoltaic potential by up to 70%, according to a modeling analysis for a six day extreme dust event in China in March 2021.