The School of Natural Resources Engineering and Management (SNREM) at the German Jordanian University (GJU) conducted two discussions for a master thesis remotely, on 22/3/2020.
 
The first Master thesis for student Abdelrahman Basim Omar entitled “The Effect of Fully Automated Cooling and Cleaning on the Photovoltaic Modules Performance”, was supervised by Dr. Mohammad Al-Addous. The defense committee consisted of Dr. Mohammad Al-Addous, Dr. Zakariya Dalalah, Dr. Madhar Bdour from GJU, and Dr. Ashraf Radideh from Yarmouk University.
In the Master thesis experiment was conducted in the Jordan Valley from February to May 2019, where the performance of Polycrystalline and Thin Film PV modules was studied. 
 
Three models were built, the first one is based on cooling the photovoltaic modules by flowing water on the front surface, and the second model is based on dry cleaning only, while the third model operated under climatic conditions without performing any cleaning or cooling.
The effect of an automated cooling system on the performance of two different types of PV modules was studied. In addition, a study was conducted to illustrate the effect of dust accumulation on the productivity of the PV modules.
 
A comparison was held between cooled and clean modules, the percentage of maximum power gain for thin film and polycrystalline modules are 15.6% and 11.05%, respectively. And when comparing between cooled and dusty modules, the percentages are 17.9% and 15.23%, respectfully. 
 
Moreover, thin film modules are found to be more sensitive to dust accumulation compared to polycrystalline modules as the percentage of current loss reached to 5.01% in thin film and 3.9% in polycrystalline modules.
 
It was found the cooling process of the thin film module was more effective when compared to the polycrystalline.
The second Master thesis is for student Aseel Al-Saadi entitled “Analysis of different micro cracks shapes and the effect of each shape on performance of PV module”, was supervised by Dr. Madhar Bdour.
 
The defense committee cososted of Dr. Madhar Bdour, Dr. Mohammad Al-Addous, Dr. Zakariya Dalalah from GJU, and Dr. Ashraf Radideh from Yarmouk University.
 
In the master thesis: Data collected from different projects that were installed in several cities in Jordan, noting that Jordan is one of the top countries in the Middle East and North Africa that started to install PV projects since 2012 (the year of releasing the renewable energy and energy efficiency law).
 
Following that, numerous installed PV power plants found few problems mostly power drops that makes a need for further investigation in finding the root cause of such power drops.
 
The study focuses on one root cause that is the µcracks as it is commonly found in many projects in all shapes and types. Defining the severity of each µcrack shape is essential before deciding to replace any sample in any project site; it could result in a real loss to both the owner of the project and the environment if replacement performed without analysis.
 
Eluctrolumince tester (EL) with high accuracy was used in this work to demonstrate µcracks found in panels. A selection of projects from different locations in Jordan beside an additional project from Egypt sampled to cover more areas in the study and add more accuracy to the result.
 
Lastly, the study is a presentation and summary of data to describe the effect of each microcrack shape on power loss aiming to decide the need for replacement of the faulty sample or not.
 
Hence in this study the microcracks have impacted power loss differently recorded (0.2 – 3.21) % for Poly -Crystalline technology depending on the module situation whether it is stocked in facility or operated on-site whereas Mono-Crystalline technology recorded (0.2 -0.9 ) % except some samples from both technologies have other effects affected power severely.