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Several soiling mitigation solutions and cleaning techniques have been developed to maintain high efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) panels. First of its kind, the investigation of the adaptability of the cleaning systems to solar trackers has been performed. The majority of these systems are dedicated to fixed installations whereas only few systems that can be adapted to solar trackers are presented in the updated cleaning systems background. For this reason, this paper presents an innovative approach which consists of combining trackers with an integrated cleaning system that has been designed. Based on the conducted experimental study, a maximum of 7% in soiling losses has been found for the PV generator of 4 kWp equipped with a dual-axis tracker installed in Rabat-Morocco over almost 1 year. Consequently, a reduced cleaning prototype has been realized and tested to evaluate the energy recovery based on the performed cleaning. The automatic cleaning has presented a similar efficiency with the manual cleaning with a slight difference of 0.95 pp and an increase of energy of 11.5% in the arid region. Through the economic analysis carried out taking into account the gain in energy production, the automatic cleaning cost was 0.14 USD/kWh. It has been found that the cleaning technique based on the telescopic arm would be more effective if the tracker is installed in an arid region where soiling is higher than Rabat. In this case, the payback time of the cleaning solution is faster (8 to 9 years), hence its profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar energy is a promising alternative for reducing the consumption of fossil fuels. However, solar potential depends on several atmospheric parameters. When no clouds are present, aerosols are the primary source of solar radiation attenuation. This study examines the impact of aerosol optical depth on the attenuation of solar irradiance under clear sky conditions. For this purpose, aerosol data from satellite databases and irradiance data from high-performance meteorological stations installed in two sites in Morocco were exploited. Under clear sky conditions, the results showed a decrease in global horizontal irradiance relative to the global irradiance at the top of the atmosphere of 24% for aerosol optical depth values of 0.02 and exceeding 53% for 0.6. Aerosols have a more significant impact on the direct normal irradiance under clear sky conditions; over the test data, a decrease of 66% was observed for the direct normal irradiance according to the extraterrestrial irradiance for aerosol optical depth of 0.2 and reaching 92% for 0.6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is considered one of the important factors in minimizing the installation costs and improving the efficiency of any photovoltaic water pumping system. The MPPT controller is specifically used to extract the maximum available power from the photovoltaic (PV) array. The maximum power can be achieved by using a specific algorithm. This work aims to raise awareness among farmers about the energy benefits available in the region of Meknes in Morocco, the economic gain and the environmental impact applied to the solar pumping system so that it can be generalized. To obtain the maximum power at each moment, a direct current (DC) water pump (SQF 0-6-2) powered by the solar panels (REC_330NP) through a buck converter was adapted. In addition, this study illustrates the theory of operation of the perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm and simulates the evaluation of this algorithm under different operating conditions (temperature and solar irradiation), and showed the advantages of this system that can operate at the optimal power regardless of disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soiling has a crucial importance regarding its impact mainly for countries that have high soiling levels, dust storms, water scarcity and a great solar energy potential as the case of Morocco. Soiling mitigation is therefore mostly required during spring, due to higher pollen concentration, and summer, due to the lack of heavy precipitation. In this work, systematic measurements of soiling ratio were made in Rabat, city of north-western Morocco, during almost 1 year. Soiling has been evaluated considering the effect of dual-axis tracking that was compared to photovoltaic (PV) on fixed structure. A soiling rate of about 0.22%/day has been found for static PV while only 0.1% was found for PV on tracker. An additional approach of cleaning has been proposed in this paper which aims to use dew water. Using glass samples that were exposed to real environmental conditions, similar to the exposure conditions of PV panels, the soiling ratio was determined. At sunrise time, the subsequent change of the glass sample, from the horizontal position at night into the position of 30° tilt angle during the day, is performed to promote dew flow by the force of gravity acting on the droplets of dew. It has been found that relying only on the change of tilt angle, the average soiling losses were only 3.8% compared with 11.8% for fixed PV. This approach can reduce soiling similarly to solar trackers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper assesses the behavior of a wind energy conversion system (WECS) under the fuzzy control in several sites located in Morocco. The sites involved in this study are located in coastal areas, namely, Assila, Houceima, Tetouan, Dakhla, Essaouira, and Laayoun. Furthermore, the first part deals with an inventory and state of art of the wind potential, achievements, work in progress, and future projects in the Kingdom of Morocco. Subsequently, a statistical analysis of the wind data and concerning the wind speed and direction in relevant geographical areas was presented in detail. The second part of the paper examines the control of WECS which is based on the direct control of the permanent magnet synchronous generator. Generator connection to the power grid is achieved by two power converters in back‐to‐back configuration controlled by pulse width modulation. The whole system modeling including the generator modeling was discussed. The control development based on (Fuzzy‐proportional‐integral) corrector for the machine‐side converter and the maximization of the power extracted from the wind using the maximum power point tracking technique have been developed. The grid‐side converter ensures the system connection to the grid with good power quality and controls the DC bus voltage. The control strategy is verified through the simulation in the Matlab‐Simulink environment to validate and evaluate the dynamic performance of the system using real wind measurements for the selected sites. The obtained results prove the effectiveness of the intended control. Interestingly, the southern zone of Morocco is more convenient for the exploitation of electricity production compared to the northern zone of the country which it can be beneficial for autonomous applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy plays a crucial role in the economy of any country. One of the most recent trends in global development is the transition to "green" growth. Morocco is keeping pace with its growth by promising to increase renewable energy capacity to 42% of total installed capacity by 2020 and to 52% by 2030. This study develops a framework that aims to determine the optimal areas for deploying photovoltaic (PV) installation in two stages. The first stage aims at excluding the undesirable areas such as forests, rivers and agricultural land. The second stage consists in defining the suitability of sites based on seven criteria; solar irradiation, land surface temperature, slopes, slope orientation, distance from power lines, distance from main roads, distance of urban area. In this study we are using fuzzy logic and fuzzy membership functions in order to create criteria layers in the environment of Geographic Information System (GIS) that allowing the integration of a Multi-Criterion Decision Analysis (MCDA) to identify the best sites to deploy PV solar power plants in north-western Morocco. Also, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique is used to determine weights for each one of the criteria. Results obtained from the spatial approach shows that the major portion of the studied area was judged inappropriate for solar farms installations. Also, it shows that only 5.11% (8500 Ha) of the territory demonstrate high suitability for PV solar installations located in the southern part of our studied area with a potential of electricity generation, from the areas with high suitability level, assuming a PV system efficiency of 6.48%; equivalent to 5.39 Twh/year with an installed capacity of 4.02 GW and an annual carbon emission reduction of 3 697.54 Kt-CO2/year. The resulting suitability map can be used as a decision support tool to help the public policy makers to integrate green energy into their policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In Morocco, Law 58/2015 has legalized the connection of photovoltaic systems on the low-voltage grid and the country should probably be adopting the net-metering approach. Since the electricity distributor should only buy a7. small part of the electricity injected, system over-sizing becomes critical for the investor. In these conditions, it is critical to know the photovoltaic yield generated at any specific Moroccan location. The objective of this study consists on calculating, generating and drawing precise maps of grid-connected photovoltaic DC yields for three silicon technologies (monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous) for all Morocco. For this, (i) we have measured and collected 2466 daily DC yields spread over 20 sites for each of the three technologies and validated three models matching the experimental measurements. Then, (ii) we have selected 1392 representative points covering all Morocco (resolution 0.25°) for which, the three validated models gave the long-term average of photovoltaic DC yields using appropriated input data from Solar Med Atlas. And finally, (iii) we have drawn the long term monthly average of daily PV DC yields maps with the help of ArcGIS set up to use the ordinary kriging method to interpolate between the 1392 points. Highlights • We have drawn the long term monthly average of daily PV DC yields maps for three silicon technologies (monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous) for all Morocco. • We have described the models and the ground measurements used. • We have also compared our results of the PV DC yield for the three silicon technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floating photovoltaic systems (FPVSs) are a modern concept for clean energy generation, which combine the existing PV systems with a floating structure. Such a combination enables achieving a higher efficiency of PV modules and a best management of land resources which ensures meeting energy requirements more effectively. In this paper, an experimental investigation of a small-scale FPVS is presented. It is designed and built for research and demonstration purposes as a first attempt to analyze this concept under Moroccan operating conditions. The objective is to analyze and compare the electrical and thermal performances of an FPVS with those of an overland PV system (OPVS) with a similar nominal capacity. To do this, a test bench consisting of FPVS and OPVS and measurement station has been proposed and established. The design and construction aspects of the FPVS, as well as the experimental setup of the entire test bench, are extensively described in this paper. The test results show that the average temperature of the FPV modules, during the test period, was always lower compared to that of the OPV modules with a difference of up to 2.74 °C. This means that FPVS can benefit from the natural cooling effect of water and operate with higher efficiency as compared to OPVS. It was also found that the FPVS generates up to 2.33% more daily energy than the OPVS. Further, an experimental test was also performed in this work to compare the energy production of FPVS under different tilt angles. The test result confirms that the FPVS produces the highest energy when it is installed at the annual optimal tilt angle. Hence, adjusting the PV modules at their optimal tilt angle is recommended as well for FPVSs. Image 1 • Design and construction of a test bench to investigate the potential of floating PV system. • An experimental investigation to compare the electrical and thermal performances of the floating PV system with a reference overland PV system is performed. • Floating PV technology can provide a great opportunity for Morocco with huge solar radiation, coastal surfaces and many water bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]