Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “How to clean solar panels without water”.
Interviewer, Most of the world’s big solar power farms are located in desert regions due to the abundance of flat land and sunlight.. However, there is also significant airborne dust and sand in these regions that accumulate on top of the solar panel surface, which can significantly reduce the power output.. The most common way the dust is removed is by using water, fresh water, which has to be transported to the region from elsewhere.. Now, a team of engineers from MIT developed a new cleaning system that can recover up to 95 % of the lost power output without using water. SREEDATH PANAT.
So we usually think of photovoltaics as a renewable energy source. But in reality there is a significant water footprint associated with photovoltaic energy.. We estimate that nearly $ 30 billion gallons of water is consumed worldwide for solar panel cleaning purposes., And this is fresh water. And such a quantity of water can satisfy the annual water needs of up to a million people in developing and underdeveloped countries..
So what we have developed is a technology based on electrostatic repulsion of dust that removes dust from solar panels without consuming a single drop of water. INTERVIEWER In their new system they introduce a transparent, conductive surface coated with aluminum doped, zinc oxide on top of a solar Panel, that charge and repel the accumulated dust particles on application of voltage. To apply the voltage. They have a robotically controlled metallic electrode that scans over the panel charging and repelling dust particles off the solar panel surface to recover the power output.
SREEDATH PANAT. Some of the smaller scale power plants actually use dry, scrubbing using rotating brushes controlled by robotic actuators., But brush-based scrubbing without using water, can cause irreversible scratching damage. On top of the solar panel surface, that can reduce the transmittance over time.. So we truly need a non-contact way of removing dust from solar panels that consumes no water to make it sustainable..
Electrostatic repulsion of dust from solar panels has the immense potential to completely eliminate the scratching damage due to contact, scrubbing and also eliminate the usage of water to clean solar, panels. INTERVIEWER. The researchers have shown the success of their system through their miniature lab setup, but the next step they say is to scale it up and conduct actual field trials on solar farms.. They are currently in the process of designing and fabricating larger scale.
Electrostatic dust repulsion systems that can be installed on existing farms, so they can conduct studies to measure the power output, degradation and recovery after employing their system., [ MUSIC PLAYING ] .