Water Free Cleaning Solution: Environmental Durability of Electrodynamic Screen (EDS) Films in Water-Free Cleaning of Solar Collectors

Abstract

The energy output of photovoltaic power plants is greatly diminished by soiling. The current methods available to clean the solar panels require copious amount of deionized water, trained manual labor and/or robotic parts and thus are not practical for scaling up, not cost effective and are unfeasible especially in areas that have scarce water resources. The Electrodynamic Screen (EDS) film is a novel, anti-soiling, self-cleaning technology that charges the dust particles electrostatically, repels them off the surface by Coulomb force and removes them by a sweeping motion of the travelling electric field generated by the three phase design. The environmental durability, stability and operational efficiency of the EDS films made with either reflective silver electrodes or silver nanowire electrodes protected by zinc oxide is discussed. Development of a screen printable hybrid ink using silver nanowires and zinc oxide is discussed. Results from environmental durability tests including complete water immersion, high temperatures and UV exposure are discussed.