There have been recent studies regarding dust deposition for example: previously carried out by Qatar University (Beattie et al., 2012), (mazumeder et al., 2015), (Mekhilef et al., 2012) however, more studies closer to Kuwait have been conducted especially; “Modelling of photovoltaic soiling loss as a function of environmental variables “Solar energy volume 157 November 2017, pages 397-407”. This defines what was studied, however, in the conclusion it was defended;
“that further research may be need to identify the additional variables relevant to soiling, so that higher accuracy of PV soiling loss prediction may be realized”
It is well known that dust causes significant performance degradation of PV systems. The phenomenon of soiling is challenging and an extremely complex issue. The soiling losses refer to the power, resulting from the introduction of the above influencing issues that affect the PV panel’s output performance. These complex issues create critical attenuation to the optimal performance of solar panels in worldwide locations, consequently, more significant, in arid climatic conditions.
Soiling issues are commonly overlooked and overestimated, to fully understand these soiling losses there are many factors that influence the soiling, these can be topography, climatic and environmental issues.
At present the technologies are still not fully developed to allow mass energy production, the efficiencies of these Photovoltaic Power plants are restricted by the reduced efficiencies in the photovoltaic equipment.
Therefore, the way forward to overcome this issue is by introducing Geographic Information System (GIS) networking system for PV performance monitoring that relates all PV projects and soiling stations into one map.
The findings are as follows;
1. Creation of GIS soiling stations in various location across Kuwait.
2. To Collect and quantify dust compositions from various locations.
3. To quantify any further variables relevant to soling.
4. Creation of GIS soiling map for Kuwait.
5. Study PV performance under Kuwait Specific conditions and defined variables
6. Enhance PV performance through historical data analysis