Dear Colleague,

Our current project aims to remove dust from solar panel surfaces, because dust reduces the
efficiency by 85%, as seen in attachment 1. Attachment 2 explains that the key factors heat,
humidity, and cementation are what causes the dust to buildup on solar panel surfaces.
Understanding the process of the different types of dust accumulating on the surface played an
important role in our project.

The three factors in installing Solar panels are:

 Angle
o Positioning the solar panels in an angle which will allow the dust particles to roll
off from the surface can be helpful; however this method can not be
implemented everywhere.
o In attachment 3, when orienting the surface along with the dominant wind
direction we deny the solar panel its optimum exposure to the sunlight hence
reducing the output power.
 Dust accumulation thickness
o Attachment 4, shows us statistically when the accumulation was low and high
the ratio of transmittance to wavelength was 1:7 and 1:24 respectively.
o Ideally having a low dust accumulation is better because it keeps the surface
clean, reduces damage, and the output is much higher.
 Weather and Time
o Oman is a country very close to Qatar and understanding the weather patterns
in Oman can give us a brief understanding that in countries like the middle east
there is mild to medium dust storms which can last to several hours and heavy
rainfall followed by dust storms, attachment 5 shows us that.
o We concluded as a team that using water in a place where dust storms occur
often is not the ideal solution.

The following factors give us a well rounded idea as to what we would like to use for our
solution, since our key factors was to reduce labor effort and usage of water. Keeping in mind
the other factors that play a role with the solar panel surface we have come up with a solution
that will be eco-friendly and saves a lot of energy, in the long run.

Best Regards,
The team of Visolar.