Review of yield increase of solar panels through soiling prevention, and a proposed water-free automated cleaning solution

Solar Energy is available in abundance and can be easily extracted using solar cells along with regular maintenance of solar panels. However, the efficiency of solar cells which is fairly low, is further affected by factors such as orientation of the panel, shade, wind speed, ambient temperature, precipitation and dust deposition. Especially, the maintenance of solar panels is challenging on account of soiling. Presently, manual and water-based cleaning solutions are generally used to remove the debris accumulated on the panels. In this paper, a detailed review of soiling prevention methods is presented with a view to increase the energy capture from solar panels. The technical details of an indigenously developed automated water-free cleaning device to remove soiling over the solar panels, is then discussed. The energy capture over the course of a month for PV panels regularly cleaned using automated solar panel cleaning solution is compared with that of the energy capture using soiled panels in a local solar panel installation, and the increased yield is measured.