Researchers in India developed a predictive framework combining degradation experiments, weather data, and environmental stress models to assess how rain affects anti-soiling solar coatings. They found that coating lifetime strongly depends on local climate, installation tilt, and rainwater pH.
May 19, 2026
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay have assessed the impact of rain on antisoiling coatings for solar panels and have found that their lifetime can vary significantly depending on local climate and installation scenario.
“The key novelty of this work is the development of a framework to predict the lifetime of anti-soiling coatings under rain exposure by integrating experimentally derived degradation parameters with the Arrhenius-modified Peck model, which separately considers temperature and pH effects on degradation, and Miner’s rule, which predicts the failure of a material under variable cyclic stress,” corresponding author Sonali Bhaduri told pv magazine. “The study investigates how environmental parameters, such as rainwater pH, temperature, and installation conditions, influence coating degradation and lifetime.”
“The results showed that coatings exposed at tilt angles lower than their roll-off angle exhibit substantially lower lifetime due to prolonged water retention on the surface. The work also highlights the greater dependence of some fluoropolymer-based coatings on rainwater pH than that of phenylsilicone-based coatings,” Bhaduri added.
