Can a waterless cleaning method remove dust from solar panels?

Dust that accumulates on solar panels is a major problem, but washing the panels uses huge amounts of water. MIT engineers have now developed a waterless cleaning method to remove dust on solar installations in water-limited regions, improving overall efficiency. Image courtesy of the researchers.

How to clean solar panels in a dusty environment?

Electrostatic cleaning Electrostatic cleaning is one of the prominent methods towards solar panel cleaning in a dusty environment. The concept has been developed with a high AC voltage which is applied to the electrodes deployed on the soiled solar panels to remove dust.

How do you clean dust off solar panels?

One of the most common ways to clean dust off solar panels is to spray them with water. But that’s a huge waste of water, especially in desert settings, where there are a lot of solar farms. The MIT scientists note in their new study, which is published in Science Advances:

Can electrostatic cleaning remove dust from solar panels?

Dust removal for solar panels via electrostatic cleaning – pv magazine International A Jordanian research team has designed a cleaning technique for solar modules that uses static electricity to remove dust from panel surfaces.

How to clean a solar PV system?

A review of solar PV cleaning methods was made in Saravanan and Darvekar, 2018, Patil et al., 2017b. Different cleaning methods such as electrostatic cleaning, super hyperbolic coating, mechanical, microcontroller-based automatic cleaning, self-cleaning nanodomes, and various characteristics of dust particles were discussed.

Can a lab-scale solar module cleaning system remove dust from solar panels?

In March, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technologyhave developed a lab-scale solar module cleaning system prototypethat uses electrostatic repulsion to cause dust particles to detach and virtually leap off the surface of panels. This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused.