Solar panel cleaning bot for enhancement of efficiency — An innovative approach

Abstract

With growing costs of electricity and concern for the environmental impact of fossil fuels, implementation of eco-friendly energy sources like solar power are rising. The main method for harnessing solar power is with arrays made up of solar panels. Accumulation of dust and debris on even one panel in an array reduces their efficiency in energy generation considerably and emphasizes the need to keep the panels' surface as clean as possible. Current labor-based cleaning methods for solar arrays are costly in time, water and energy usage and lack automation capabilities. In this paper a novel design is presented for the first ever human portable robotic cleaning system for solar panels, which can clean and maneuver on the glass surface of a Solar panel array at varying angles from horizontal to vertical. This is done with the help of Microcontroller board Arduino Uno R3 which easily controls all the devices used in this particular model and therefore helps us to understand the required parameters which deal with the change in efficiency brought about by the cleansing of the solar panel arrays.