PROJECT PROPOSAL

COURSE CODE: 9210-01-139

AUTOMATIC SOLAR PHOTOVOLTIC PANEL

CLEANING

NAME : M.Z.Z.SHAFFY
ENR NO : RPJ2969
DATE OF SUBMISSION : 29TH FEB 2020
INTRODUCTION
Almost all the energy on earth can be traced back to the sun, If it weren’t for the sun the Earth would be a cold
lifeless planet. Plants grow because of energy from the sun, the wind blows and even fossil fuel is a form of
energy derived from the sun over millions of years ago, kept stored in hydrocarbon compounds. But how much
energy is actually coming from the sun, and how much of it makes it all the way to the earth?

89,000 Terra watts actually pass through the atmosphere and reach the Earth’s surface. For comparison, the total
energy used by the human race is 15 Terra Watts. So there is 5,900 times more energy hitting the Earth but not
used at the present. If all solar energy could be converted into usable forms, it would be enough to supply the
world’s energy demand. However this is not possible due to conditions in the atmosphere such as effects of
clouds, dust and temperature.

Solar energy can be converted more usable forms of energy through photovoltaic solar panels, this method of
extracting power from solar energy have been considered has promising toward meeting the continuously
increasing demand for energy. The efficiency of solar panel is limited due to natural conditions so it is very much
essential to take care of parameters like dust, Humidity and temperature.

In countries like Sri Lanka having dusty environment accumulation of duct on the panels leads to reduction of the
efficient of the panel. The best way to eliminate the effect of the accumulated dust on the solar panels is to clean
the panels.

Normal way of cleaning the solar panel is by washing. This is tedious and cumbersome and at the same time
expensive in terms of the labour involved and time. Hence I am proposing a method of automatic cleaning of
solar panels

Dust accumulated in Solar PV Panels

Generation report of a 5kW system

Before Cleaning After cleaning

OBJECTIVE

Traditional manual cleaning has disadvantages like risk of staff accidents and damage to the panels, movement
difficulties, time consuming, expensive labour etc. The automatic cleaning system of solar panels is designed to
overcome the difficulties arise in the traditional cleaning and also produce an affective, non-abrasive and avoids
the irregularities in the productivity due the accumulated dust particles on the panel surface and edges.

The autonomous cleaning products available at present mostly designed to meet large solar PV power station
requirements. Thus such a system is not suitable for residential solar PV system owners. The system proposed
here has following advantages,

 Cost of production is low.

 No need to purchase heavy machinery, does not use industrial level machineries.
 Reduces threats to human life due to lower manual assistance.

Main objectives of the proposed design are,

 Reduce the production cost so that it will be affordable to the residential solar PV system owners where
they can maximize their generation.
 Include water spray system to maximize the dust removal process.
 Make the system automatic using microcontrollers.
 Supply power to the DC motor using solar system so that the power saving is maximized.

Manual Cleaning of Solar Panels

Industrial Level Cleaning machines available

METHODOLOGY
The effect of accumulated dust on the performance of the solar panels is investigated by referring to the results
obtained by the experimentation in dusty atmosphere of different level (these studies carried out by Sustainable
Energy Authority-Sir Lanka).

The design of the auto cleaning robot will have flexibility in order to fix on different sizes of flat solar panels/ solar
arrays. The robot consists of brushes driven by DC-motor through belt system on a frame (Aluminium). The
movement of the brush is controlled by signal generated by a microcontroller.

The DC-motor will produce a rotational motion which is converted to a liner motion through belt. Shifting of
frame from one solar panel array to another solar panel array is also carried out using DC motors. The electrical
power which is needed to drive the DC-motor is supplied from the solar panels itself.

Following steps are involved the methodology,

 Collecting and studying more extra details regarding the effects of accumulated dust on the surface of the
solar panels.
 Design the basic prototype of the auto cleaning system.
 Choosing the proper microcontroller to control the DC motor and brush position movements.
 Choosing the proper sensors to sense the edges of the solar panel/array.
 Designing the microcontroller’s algorithm such that the microcontroller can control the robot in the right
direction.

Working Principle
Components expected to use

1. DC- gear motors.

2. Rubber wheels.
3. Rolling brush.
4. Aluminium Frames/steel frames.
5. Gear wheel.
6. Appropriate Microcontrollers.
7. Appropriate Sensors.
8. Driver Boards.

RESOURCES AVAILABLE
1. Sustainable energy authority – Sri Lanka to get studies carried out by their organization on how
accumulated dust affects the solar panel performance.
2. Solar PV systems installed resident
3. Chartered Engineer’s lab facility to carryout necessary experiments.
4. Workshop to carryout mechanical work needed to be done for the frame work.