Impact of the 2019-2020 Australian Black Summer Wildfires on Photovoltaic Energy Production

Abstract

Air pollution produced by the Australian Black Summer wildfires caused extreme haze events across New South Wales (NSW). We analyzed 30-minute resolution energy data from 160 residential PV systems in NSW from 6 November 2019 to 15 January 2020. A percentile data analysis technique was adapted to derive a mean reduction rate for PV energy generation with PM2.5. The mean power reduction rate for PV systems was approximately $-12.5\% \pm 2.2\%$ per $100\ \mu\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{m}^{3}$ of PM2.5 for airmass 1.0. The energy loss for residential PV systems was estimated as $39.8\pm 7.9$ GWh, equating to a worst-case financial impact of $9.27 \pm 1.85$ million AUD. This work aims to help inform PV system planning and energy storage options of new PV systems; and raise awareness of the impact of wildfires and air pollution on solar PV.