International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Special Issue, Convergence 2019

E-ISSN: 2321-9637
Available online at www.ijrat.org

Literature Review on Solar Panel Cleaning System

Abstract- Energy is one of the major issues that the world is facing in India, the supply of energy has been one of the
major problems for both urban and rural households. About 60% to 70% of the energy demand of the country is met by
fuel wood and agriculture residues. Solar energy is a renewable source of energy, which has a great potential and it is
radiated by the sun. Renewable energy is important to replace the use of electric energy generated by petroleum. Solar
power has become a source of renewable energy and solar energy application should be enhanced. The solar photo-
voltaic modules are generally employed in dusty environments e.g. tropical countries like India. The dust gets
accumulated on the surface of the module and blocks the incident light from the sun. It reduces the power generation
capacity of the module. The power output reduces as much as by 50% if the module is not cleaned for a month. The
cleaning system designed cleans the module by Arduino programming control. The main objective is to remove the dust
in the photo-voltaic modules to improving the power generating efficiency of the solar power generation system.

Index Terms-Rolling Brush, Arduino Board, DC Geared Motor, Gear Wheels.

1. INTRODUCTION
The Solar energy is the most abundant source of energy [1] H. Hottel and B. Woertz,, “Performance of flat-
for all the forms of life on the planet earth. The plate solar-heat collectors, "Trans. ASME (Am. Soc.
technology of photovoltaic (PV) is developing Mech. Eng.); (United States), vol. 64, 1942. [1]:
continuously in many applications, so it generates First studied the effects of dust on solar panel
electricity with no harmful effect on environment. presentation with the aid of analyzing the dust collecting
Nowadays, energy-related aspects are becoming on such panels. A 3 month test becomes done in a
extremely important. They involve, for instance, a business location close by a four-tune railroad 90m away
rational use of resources, the environmental impact from Boston, Massachusetts. They located a mean of
related to the pollutants emission and the consumption one% loss of occurrence solar radiation changed into
of non-renewable resources. Various source of energy caused by dirt that accumulated on the surface of the sun
like coal, gas, hydro, nuclear, diesel and some of them panel with a slant attitude ofa30°. The very best
are going to get exhausted within few years. For these dilapidation defined for the duration of the check
reasons there is an increasing worldwide interest in duration becomea4.7%. The researchers found out a
sustainable energy production and energy saving. But correction issue, defined as the ratio of the transference
the solar technology has not matured to the extent of the from a polluted or exposed glass plate to clean one, of
conventional sources of energy. It is facing lots of zero. Ninety nine, with aa45° slant angle; this value
challenges such as cost, unpredictability of nature and changed into general and hooked up in the layout of flat
low efficiency of the panel. plate collectors till 1970. Kimber et al. tested the
The main factor that affects a PV panel’s consequences of soiling on large grid-linked PV panels
efficiency is dust, which can reduce its efficiency by up in California, USA in 2011. The goal of the have a look
to 50%, depending on the environment. The solar PV at became to deliver a better model to correctly are
modules are generally employed in dusty environments expecting soiling patients all through the 12 months
which is the case in tropical countries like India. barely than presumptuous a continual annual fee. Every
other objective changed into to illustrate the final results
2. LITERATURE SURVEY of soiling on PV arrangement for general area slightly
Many research studied the effect of dust and other than for a particular area. For that examine, to illustrate
impurities on the solar panel and much experiments have soiling losses over the dry season, a linear deterioration
been carried out to clear up this troubles. Under are a version changed into used. After except for websites
few theories and researches which can be related to this with nonlinear conduct of soiling and large rainfall of
mission. The phenomenon of converting light directly the web sites, the information from 250 sites have been
into electricity was discovered by Henri Becquerek back accumulated and later filtered to 46 machine records
in year 1839. Then Albert Einstein explained the sets.
principle of photovoltaic in year 1905 using quantum
theory. Significant use of PV power systems has started [2] Ali Omar Mohamed, Abdulazez Hasan, “Effect of
in space application in the 1905’s and its modest use in Dust Accumulation on Performance of Photovoltaic
Solar Modules in Sahara Environment” Journal of
global application began in the 1960‟s. However, at the Basic and applied scientific Research, Volume 2,
start of 1970‟s and 80 saw a superior and substantial use Issue11, Pages 11030-11036
of PV power system.

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 International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Special Issue, Convergence 2019
E-ISSN: 2321-9637
Available online at www.ijrat.org
Considered the southern area of Libya which The aim of this paper is to give an innovative
usually carries the dust and sand in the period from concept to handle energy demand around the world is
February to May, which is also called as seasonal wind. increasing rapidly for many applications. Renewable
So the small particles of the sand, trees, debris and sources of energy are solar, wind and geothermal which
droppings of birds are accumulated on the PV model are inexhaustible. Solar energy is abundant in nature and
surface, which yield a shading sunlight on the modules. is proving its existence for many applications like street
Here the area of study divided as rural desert, where the lighting, house hold appliances, water heating,
amount of solar irradiance is large over the year. Thus it agricultural and industrial purpose. One of the way to
inspires to adopt the clean energy resource on desert harness solar energy is done by using solar panels.
region. Hence a framework of weekly cleaning on PV Limitation of solar energy is its efficiency for any
modules throughout the period involves the application due to the factors like dust, humidity,
experimental set up and a simultaneous measuring is temperature etc. Electrical parameters of solar panel are
implemented in maximum operating voltage and sensitive to accumulated dust density and will affect the
currents on each module for both before and after transmittance of the solar panel thereby reduce its
washing modules. Weekly water washing is carried out efficiency. In order to overcome this problem, it is
through periods of February to May in order to evaluate necessary to clean the solar panels regularly.
performance of PV panels. So the maximum current and
voltage is measured at the terminal using the digital [5] Kutaiba-Sabah, Sabah Nimma Faraj (2013) Self-
multi-meter device, before and after washing in order to Cleaning Solar Panels to Avoid the Effects of
gain the maximum power at the operating point Accumulated Dust on Solar Panels Transmittance.
generated by PV module. During study water wash is International Journal of Science and Research
done once in a week on module without any automatic (IJSR), India Online ISSN: 2319-7064
cleaning technologies, manually by mixed detergents In the experiment which is previously done,
with water and use of hand cleaning materials. dust accumulation for the solar panels being investigated
Furthermore to wash surface module, spry nozzle is for a long period of time that is approximately for one
fixed at the top. Approximately each module consumes year. The experiments have been done in different
around 5 liters of water. In fact it is necessary to countries which have climate conditions of the dusty
maintain an optimum performance in desert region by weather. Those countries are Iraq, Egypt and UAE. The
regular cleaning of PV module. However accumulated solar panels were never cleaned, initially for one month,
dust causes the impact on output power and the system and then for two months and so on. The results were
efficiency. Hence periodically cleaning, maintained there was a decreasing in the transmittance of the solar
performance losses between 2 to 2.5%. panels, which is emphasize the effect of accumulated
dust, even though the changing in the tilt angel which is
[3] Shaharin A. Sulaiman ``Effects of Dust on the in concurrence with the dust deposition on the panels. A
Performance of PV Panels` International Journal of well designed auto cleaning system to clean the solar
Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronics panels will be added to the panels to keep the
and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:5, 2011 transmittance of the solar planes fixed approximately
Dust accumulation from the outside and to reduce the cost- of periodic cleaning. Actually,
environment on the solar photovoltaic (PV) panels there are many benefits from such a project. First,
system is natural. There were studies which showed that economical benefit, where there is no more money will
the accumulated dust can minimize the performance of be paid to a cleaning agency. Second, it is time saving,
solar panels, but the results were not evidently where there is no time will be spent to clean those solar
quantified. The purpose of this research was to study the panels. Besides that, recurrently cleaning will make sure
dust accumulation effects and then analyze the that the solar panel works with a good transmittance.
performance of solar PV panels. Experiments were Finally, safety and health of workers in sites. Since
conducted by utilizing dust particles on solar panels with robots are capable of working in perilous environments,
a steady power light source, to conclude the resulting more dangerous operations are being handled by robots.
electrical power generated and efficiency. The effect of
presence of dust was studied using artificial dust (mud [6] S. B. Halbhavi, S. G. Kulkarni, Dr. D. B.
and talcum) under a constant irradiance conducted in an Kulkarni , “Microcontroller Based Automatic
indoor lab. Dust has consequences on the solar PV panel Cleaning of Solar Panel” International Journal of
performance. The decline in the peak power generation Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology
can be equal to 18%. It was also given away that under (IJLTET)ISSN: 2278-621XVol. 5 Issue 4 July 2015
larger irradiation; the effect of dust became somewhat This paper added an automated cleansing
minimized but not negligible. device, which senses the dirt on the sun panel as a way
[4] Satish patil, Mallaradhya H M (2016) design and to easy the dirt frequently. If the panel isn't wiped clean
implementation of microcontroller based automatic then 50% of the module performance might be reduced.
dust cleaning system for solar panel. international The 8051 microcontroller is used to control the tools
journal of engineering research and advanced motor and to implement the automated gadget. The
technology (ijerat) issn: 2454-6135 special volume. 02 mechanism consists of a sensor and also consists of the
issue.01, may-2016 sliding brushes while cleansing the PV modules. The
analysis of the dust can be examined below the different

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 International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Special Issue, Convergence 2019
E-ISSN: 2321-9637
Available online at www.ijrat.org
conditions with the deposition of the unique pollutants
like ash, sand, silica, calcium carbonate and crimson
soil. Later retaining the PV model cool and clean, effects
are acquired for effective device presentation. The
strength generation in each instances become
experimentally determined. Sooner or later by way of
the use of the above said computerized cleaning scheme
the power output can be expanded approximately 30%,
as compared to other cleansing technologies. Also
recurrent periodic cleansing guarantees that the panel
works with true conduction step by step.

3. CONCLUSION
Economical benefit, where there is no more money will
be paid to a cleaning agency. It is time saving, where
there is no time will be spent to clean those solar panels.
Besides that, frequently cleaning will ensure that the
solar panel works with a good transmittance. Since
robots are capable of working in hazardous
environments, more dangerous operations are being
handled by robots. Thus the safety and health of workers
is ensured, thereby reducing expenditures on health and
medicines.
The performance analysis of the experimental setup
is purely based on the amount of power generated on the
dusty panel and a cleaned panel. The output power may
reduce considerably by the large amount of dust
accumulation on the panel. Dry cleaning can eliminate
the dust particles on the surface. The assembly is found
to be lightweight. In comparison of costs in manual
operation cleaning and automatic cleaning, the cost for
automatic cleaning is demonstrated to be more economic
and significantly less burden particularly in the system
having large number of solar panels. The power output
is varying for the different weather conditions. A regular
periodic cleaning ensures the variation of power
measured in both before and after cleaning conditions by
showing the significant performance of the cleaning
technology.

REFERENCE
[1] Shishir Kumar Das, Ankit Srivasan, And Lucky
ShrivastavSsipmt, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. -
Hardware Design, Design Concept.
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Mathew, “International Research Journal of
Engineering and Technology (IRJET)” Volume:
04 Issue: 05 | May -2017
[3] Dabhi Chirag , Gandhi Mayank ,
JadejaMandipsinh , PrajapatiParimal,
Design“International Journal of Advance
Engineering and Research DevelopmentScientific
Journal of Impact Factor (SJIF)”: 4.72 Special
Issue SIEICON-2017,April -2017 By-
[4] Mohammadreza Maghami1, HashimHizam,
Chandima Gomes, “Impact of dust on Solar
Energy Generation based on Actual Performance”
International Conference on POWER AND
ENERGY.978-1-4799-7297-5/14/$31.00 ©2014
IEEE.

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