Solar and wind energy: Challenges and solutions in desert regions

Ali Al-Dousari, Waleed Al-Nassar, Ali Al-Hemoud, Abeer Alsaleh, Ashraf Ramadan, Noor Al-Dousari and Modi Ahmed

Energy, 2019, vol. 176, issue C, 184-194

Abstract: In desert regions, several environmental challenges have the potential to reduce solar energy production. These are the formation of thinly crusted mud and/or carbonates coatings caused from deposited dust aerosols during humid conditions and other weather conditions. These challenges that profoundly affect photovoltaic panel surfaces as well as wind turbines were delineated to conclude the potential feasibility to establish solar and/or wind energy systems in Kuwait. The study concluded that photovoltaic (PV) cells are not the most suitable energy source for Kuwait due to the above mentioned environmental challenges; therefore, alternative renewable energy sources are considered more feasible. After one year of operation at solar units and wind farms in Kuwait, the results clearly show that wind energy records energy production numbers that exceed the industry average. This was associated with high capacity factors throughout the year, resulting in an annual power production that is 2.3 times higher than that of PV; powering 450 homes compared to 199 homes for PV. West of the state of Kuwait and the Bubiyan Island are the recommended potential sites for wind farm establishment.

Keywords: Aerosol; Aeolian; Photovoltaic; Solar; Wind; Energy; Dust; Desert; Kuwait (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544219306000
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:176:y:2019:i:c:p:184-194

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.03.180

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().