Performance evaluation of photovoltaic systems on Kuwaiti schools’ rooftop

• Evaluation of rooftop PV installations at 2 Kuwaiti schools was carried out.
• Lack of real plants data in the region and specifically Kuwait motivated the work.
• Automated cleaning system allowed for minimization of soiling loss.
• The average PV system performance was greater than 76%.
• Schools show high potential for rooftop installations.

Photovoltaic (PV) is a high-potential renewable energy technology for Kuwait to pursue due to high daily irradiation, and has garnered local attention in recent years due to the growing energy demand and concerns over climate change. As yet, no data are available regarding the actual performance of PV systems in Kuwait’s harsh environment. This paper presents a 12-month-long performance evaluation of the first 85.05 kWp and 21.6 kWp copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film, grid-connected PV systems on the rooftops of two schools. The schools’ monthly energy consumption and PV generation profiles, the actual performance of the PV plants, the effectiveness of automated cleaning systems on the power output, and the benefits of PV implementation in schools were analyzed and evaluated. Data analysis was applied to filter and normalize the data in order to identify the actual performance parameters. The findings of the study, based on solar irradiation collected, the performance of the module technology and the effectiveness of the automated cleaning systems, show that the performance ratio was maintained between 0.74 and 0.85. Furthermore, the minimum monthly energy yield of the PV systems was about 104 kW h/kWp. The annual average daily final yields of the PV systems in this study were 4.5 kW h/kWp/day. The results provided insight into the performance of CIGS grid-connected PV systems in Kuwait, and those data will be beneficial to the PV research community worldwide. School buildings, particularly for the rooftops, are a unique and important asset for urban PV system implementation, because they provide a combination of relatively large, unused, suitable areas, which would make distributed and effective solar power generation possible on the national level.