Solar Resource Mapping of AL Duqm Industrial Area

The Sultanate of Oman has one of the highest percentages of potential solar radiation in the world, which puts it in an outstanding position to horde electricity generation plants through photovoltaic solar systems. Oman consists of 11 governorates, and each governorate is divided into many Willyiah, which are made up of small villages. Willyiah of Al Duqm is located in Al Wusta Governorate (19°39^'42^"N 57°42^'17^"E) in central-eastern Oman. This paper proposes the use of a monthly average hourly diffuse illuminance from meteorological data and from a Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify the best plots suitable for installing photovoltaic solar farms in the Al Duqm Industrial Area. Solar data collected in this study shows that the highest average annual solar radiation data recorded is 5,764 Wh/m² in the Al Duqm area. Solar radiation data from 2000 to 2012 has been collected for further analysis. The Annual Energy Production (AEP) simulated using ArcGIS ranges between 6,028 Wh/m² and 3,668 Wh/m². This shows a very close estimation between simulation results and the data collected from the meteorological department in Oman.