Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has many environmental and economic benefits as it converts solar radiation into electrical energy without any emission of greenhouse gases. Geographically, Pakistan is situated in the sunbelt region, it has a lot of solar energy potential to meet our energy demands, which can help in reducing environmental hazards. The operational efficiency of the solar panels is strongly dependent on environmental conditions like air quantity in a particular area, wind velocity, humidity, temperature, and irradiance. In particular, the deposition of airborne participles can enormously reduce the PV system’s efficiency in areas having poor air quality. Since the accumulation of dust on panels varies with the local air quality and the climate condition of that area, a proper design and maintenance of solar systems need knowledge of the dust accumulation rates in a specific location. An adequate understanding of dust accumulation enables the development of useful operational efficiency techniques. PV systems soiling affects the electrical and thermal behavior of photovoltaic panels, which ultimately decreases power production. Worldwide, many case studies have already elaborated soiling effect of solar systems. However, a limited number of investigations related to the soiling of solar systems has been conducted in different areas in Pakistan. This thesis investigates power losses due to soiling for land mounted PV systems in Faisalabad (latitude and longitude ). Faisalabad is an industrial city, so solar power has enormous potential to energize the industry in Faisalabad. An accurate prediction of soiling loss can thus increase profit and reduce Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). In this thesis, we have developed the following:

1) Small test-bed for solar PV soiling measurement.
2) Electrical measurement to measure soiling
3) Chemical analysis to measure dust composition and size of participles as well as the morphology of dust sample
4) Comparison of the dust composition, soiling loss factor, and cleaning schedule between Faisalabad and other major cities in Pakistan and different location around the world

The characterization of soiling and cleaning schedules optimization methodologies that have been developed in this thesis are general and could be applied to any location as well as morphology