A major research focus at ASU-PRL is the precise measurement and mitigation of soiling (dust and dirt) losses on PV performance.

• Artificial Soiling Deposition Chamber: The team developed a specialized indoor cubic chamber designed to closely replicate natural, cyclic soil accumulation processes found in the field. This includes mimicking the exact physics of dust suspension, deposition, and the sedimentation/cementation driven by morning dew.
• Climate & Material Replication: The chamber regulates humidity, temperature, dust type, and dust concentration based on site-specific  soil.
• Authentic Testing Materials: A key differentiator of the lab's methodology is the use of actual dust collected from specific field sites (e.g., White Sands, New Mexico, or the mid-Atlantic). This ensures identical chemical composition and precise particle size distributions (typically 8 to 21 µm) rather than relying on standardized lab variants like ISO Arizona Road Dust.
• Performance Evaluation: This highly controlled near-field environment evaluates how different surface materials accumulate dust, measuring short-circuit current losses and using colorimetry to accurately rank-order the effectiveness of commercial hydrophobic and anti-soiling coatings across different geographic climates.
• Remote Soiling Monitoring Stations: Complementing the indoor chamber testing, the lab has extensive experience designing, calibrating, and deploying regional, waterless PV soiling monitoring stations. These outdoor monitoring systems provide continuous, real-time tracking of site-specific soiling losses and enable the long-term field validation of anti-soiling technologies and optimized cleaning schedules.