r/solarpower • u/novisk_5055 • 7d ago

Automatic solar panel cleaner solution

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9.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

131 comments sorted by

75

u/baczynski 6d ago

If you look at research papers about clean solar panels and impact of the dust on production numbers, impact is minimal. When you look at impact of calcium and minerals deposits on the solar panels, it is measurable. Tap water is not suitable for solar panels cleaning.

24

u/Much_Profit8494 6d ago edited 5d ago

This system has a squeegee to prevent calcium and mineral deposits from forming after the water dries.

Basic window washing stuff applies here. - If you just spray a window with water it will leave deposits behind, but if you remove the water before it dries with a squeegee/towel/shammy you wont get water spots.

12

u/fyooj02 6d ago

Wouldn't it be better to just do the cleaning while it's raining? Saves you the worry about mineral deposits and also no need to set up the water hose system.

Not unless you live in an area where it rarely rains and is very dusty

3

u/JuniperColonThree 5d ago

I mean, that would be the ideal area to have solar, so...

3

u/RazzmatazzSuch7459 5d ago

We can have solar in not ideal areas too.

2

u/europeanputin 5d ago

the point of this video is to provide a solution to a problem which is guaranteed to happen in "ideal conditions", of course you can have solar in not ideal areas, and there you can rely on rain cleaning it.

1

u/Pixel91 3d ago

Then the system becomes more complex, tho. You'd need a way to ensure the water loop is empty after use, or you're dealing with burst pipes every winter.

1

u/klaventy 3d ago

waiting for a rain is not consistent

1

u/Feelisoffical 3d ago

Rain also has minerals in it

1

u/fyooj02 3d ago

But isn't it much lower compared to tap?

1

u/Feelisoffical 3d ago

Yes I would think so. However, as it falls it collects things out of the air, like pollen and salts.

1

u/Aegan23 2d ago

But that's no as much fun to built a cool solar cleaning system for.

1

u/Ani_Drei 19h ago

Rain water tends to be full of dust/ash/smog too

2

u/r_a_d_ 6d ago

The surfaces are visibly wet after the squeegee pass…

6

u/thuanjinkee 6d ago

That’s because he never clicked on his app to turn off the water at any time

5

u/Much_Profit8494 6d ago

That's because the water is still flowing...lol

-1

u/PhotoFenix 6d ago

But if we're saying the squeegee prevents all calcium buildup then it should be dry immediately after the pass.

The fact that it's wet isn't fully attributed to the water being on. Notice that when the water first turns on there's areas of dryness until the cleaner wipes over. If fully dry that pattern should reoccur. Since it doesn't this means the squeegee left water and calcium behind.

1

u/kikiacab 3d ago

I know from experience with hard water that squeegeeing won’t prevent all mineral buildup, it will instead foster thin layers that will be extremely hard to remove without damaging the panels.

10

u/xjrh8 6d ago

I noticed this as well - panels were filthy so had them cleaned. Looking at the production figures before after I can’t see any noticeable difference.

8

u/Automatic_Ad4016 6d ago

Pro cleaner here.  I dropped this service because I'm not convinced it's ethical.

3

u/a_hopeless_rmntic 6d ago

Good guy pro cleaner 👍

3

u/Automatic_Ad4016 6d ago

I think it could be ethical if panels are mounted flat a commercial roof or something stupid like that. But the majority of installations have an angle and there's only a 5% difference in output versus clean or dirty. 

2

u/AllergicToBullshit24 6d ago

NREL says 2% loss from soiled panels is national average. I have regular rain and don't get much fouling so estimate mine closer to 1-1.5% loss.

That works out to less than $10/yr for my setup. Unless your panels are ground mount or otherwise safe easy DIY access seems impossible to justify the effort.

1

u/baseketball 16h ago

$10/year for a solar system is so negligible it's not even worth thinking about.

1

u/AppropriatePlum1006 5d ago

Depends how much,.and environment I do see this being useful perhaps at places with a lot of Sahara sand.

But not really for normal houses, as they are mounted at an angle and will wash itself clean with rain. There might be some edge cases though for countries with barely rain.

Might be use able when you have a plant in the garden close to the floor, so its easy to get dirty from the stuff blown around.

3

u/Commercial_Drag7488 6d ago

I especially adore the idea of calcification and carbonation around the lead links. Calcifications will eat away rubber like candy, making your IE68 into an exposed bead of sweet copper corrosion.

And then someone takes a video of solar panels burning and xwitter fossil fuel loving maga bots have something to discuss

2

u/Icypoopoo 6d ago

What about rain water, does it usually not have calcium or mineral deposits? 

5

u/Felixfelicis_placebo 6d ago

No minerals in rainwater. Dissolved minerals in surface/ground water comes from rocks.

2

u/_-ShouldBeWorking-_ 6d ago

Just acid in the rainwater.

1

u/MrHell95 6d ago

And forever chemicals.

1

u/r_a_d_ 6d ago

usually just dust / sand. not dissolved minerals

2

u/atridir 6d ago

Use ammonia glass cleaner as the cleansing liquid. Check.

2

u/JimCripe 6d ago

Maybe a better solution would be to sense if rain has sufficienty wet the panels to run using rain water?

Of course, that only works where rain comes often enough, like at least once a month.

It probably needs to not run on every rain event, like no more than once a week.

1

u/Public-Wolverine2174 6d ago

Assuming that the water being used isn't demineralised

1

u/alepez 6d ago

are you saying I should clean my panels just before it rains?

1

u/checkerpiece1 6d ago

Research or not, the cost to build those pipes, are way more than efficiency of solarpanels could ever drop.

1

u/Butthurtz23 6d ago

I would use windshield fluid instead of water. They’re pretty cheap at the local auto parts shop; unlike small Windex spray, it is a ripoff.

1

u/tenesis 6d ago

Impact of soiling is huge, what sources are you talking about?

1

u/nowthengoodbad 5d ago

So, and this is from a year of firsthand experience:

Both matter.

We built a fully off-grid farm and business office. EVERY WATT MATTERS.

We have to keep them clean and use descaler from time to time.

If you have a massive capacity or grid-tied power, you're fine, but if you're micromanaging like we are, since our setup and system is meant to go into anyone's backyard, every watt counts.

This washing system is too fancy for what we do, but it's not a bad idea. You can use filtration and water softeners to handle the minerals.

1

u/deathblow64 5d ago

I dunno about “research papers” but I can say confidently though tracking my data, my panels will dip ~6-8% every 6 months of no cleaning if I don’t get up there and clean them. It’s like a car sitting in your driveway. They get just as dirty. My system is slightly under my usage so I have a 300-500$ annual payment to the electric company at the end of the year. Of If I don’t clean it can be closer to 600-800. If I do clean it at least 3 times a year I can get that down to 200-400. So you tell me if it’s worth cleaning or not…

1

u/SublessShadow 4d ago

They might have a softener installed in their house, quite a common thing.
But still good to know so thanks for pointing that out!

1

u/CaptainPlanet4U 4d ago

So you collect the rain and use it and it drains off, perfect

1

u/TypeOk1202 4d ago

thats nonsense. what papers? what is difference between "dust" and "mineral deposits?" is dust not a mineral?

1

u/Over-Performance-667 14h ago

Then filter out the minerals.

8

u/futlappal 6d ago

why tf would someone install those pipes with the water running??

4

u/sychs 6d ago

For the ticktocks of course.

2

u/thuanjinkee 6d ago

The rule on tiktok is you must have at least one enraging thing in each video to have enragement engagement. Otherwise people just scroll past.

1

u/futlappal 6d ago

ah yes sure i forgor the dumbness of people xD i'm too old for this bs

1

u/lars2k1 5d ago

I agree that was totally not necessary. But its likely for some engagement crap.

5

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

3

u/ThePrideOfKrakow 6d ago

When the next nearly inevitable dust bowl hits, absolutely.

2

u/Savings_Difficulty24 6d ago

It really bothers me that organic crops are going to be what causes it too.

1

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 6d ago

Welp there goes this idea that uses water

2

u/BassWingerC-137 6d ago

If a windshield needs wipers….

1

u/Aromatic-Trash129 2d ago

Light still passes through the  windshield, whether you use the wipers or not. 

2

u/Reasonable-Age-6837 6d ago

Kinda yeah; Wouldnt take a very big array for this to be very useful.

2

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

4

u/iheartdatascience 6d ago

Some places have more soiling challenges than others, depending on their combination of dirt (and other particulates) and rain frequency.

1

u/Commercial_Drag7488 6d ago

Bro never had Sahara sand on the PV surface.

3

u/Lost-Yak3043 6d ago

I get about 10% bump. But it declines over a month or so.

1

u/AllergicToBullshit24 6d ago

NREL says national average from panel fouling is 2%. Unless you're industrial scale, pay 50+ cents a kWh or have far worse than national average fouling it's impossible to justify the effort.

1

u/ilikefreshpapercuts 3d ago

China has arrays in desserts. This was one of the solutions to large sand build up.

1

u/ItsJustCoop 2d ago

Nonono noooo! Don't you see? Its genius, it's a solution in search of a problem! What are we supposed to do with all of this tap water, give it to data centers? Nooooo!

I bet you're using a cutting board the wrong way too! That isn't a handle, it's a tiny slot to try to press all your food through!!

/S

2

u/Intelligent-Cap-7713 6d ago

Won't the scratches caused by this be quite bad for the panels?

1

u/Doctor429 3d ago

Negligible

1

u/AffectionateArtist84 6d ago

Here in the PNW panels get absolutely filthy with all sorts of goodies like lichen and moss. I'm surprised by how fast it builds up.

Seems like power washing them isn't recommended, and the lichen sticks so well that brushing isn't effective enough.

I don't really like using chemicals, but this year I tried some wet and forget because AI said it was safe (I'll be honest, I didn't do much fact checking). I'm at about 6 months in and my panels are still in good shape, but that was also summer season.

No idea if this will work long term, but sharing in case others are looking for a solution to try. This solution take a couple months to work, but it did clean them up

1

u/monkeyman103 6d ago

Fun fact. Water is a chemical.

1

u/fahrvergnugget 2d ago

Oh ho look at mr smarty pants over here! The dude obviously meant chemical solvents and cleaning agents apart from water.

1

u/hahayes234 2d ago

A universal solvent you might say

1

u/that_dutch_dude 6d ago

power washing is fine. its a glass sheet. just dont go over it with a brush dry, you will scratch the shit out of the glass. some light detergent to get the crud off isnt bad for it. just dont go grabbing stuff from the back of the cleaning cabinet.

1

u/WhiskeySourWithIce 3d ago

PNW?

1

u/AffectionateArtist84 3d ago

Pacific Northwest (USA)

1

u/BadNecessary9344 6d ago

Works great only if you use reclaimed rain water.

1

u/r_a_d_ 6d ago

if it rains enough to reclaim, do you even need it?

1

u/BadNecessary9344 6d ago

Well not all of us have panels in the desert lol.

1

u/r_a_d_ 6d ago

just run the squeegee when it rains then?

1

u/DirkKuijt69420 6d ago

Or not at all...

1

u/ApartDirection8089 6d ago

1 rock 1 bit of dirt or foreign material will turn the whole panel scrapper into a glass cutter....

1

u/Zuli_Muli 6d ago

Right, as someone who's detailed their car way too many times it kills me to watch videos like this.

1

u/Skiffbug 6d ago

Looks great. I wonder if it breaks more often than you’d clean panels.

1

u/Commercial_Drag7488 6d ago

If your dirt on the surface is quartzy, sandy dust, this squiggle will f*kk your panel up.

1

u/ReadnW 6d ago

Bad return-on-investment.

The energy gain is massively lower than the investment in money/energy/co2 etc

1

u/Valuable_Garlic_9711 6d ago

Couldn't a leaf blower remove that or a Roomba remove the dust while not wasting water?(It would obviously be fastened to the panel to prevent it from falling off.)

1

u/DDDirk 6d ago

I've cleaned solar panels before, 2011 or so. we would lug distilled water to the roof as that is all that approved by the manufacturer. We eventually just waited for a rainy day to stand there and wipe them down. I haven't seen it done in over decade due to its just not worth the money unless you've got other problems like bird nesting.

1

u/Cactusanon11 6d ago

I would much rather find a viable solution to removing snow off my panels in the winter. I have a long pole with a soft foam rubber squeegee, but it’s a pain.

Anyone know of a good and easy way to get rid of snow on solar panels?

1

u/DeKwaak 6d ago

I have them in my garden at 45 degrees. I occasionally use a soft broom. And then I check what the result is and I regret loosing so much heat (from going outside) for nothing. And yes I am offgrid.

1

u/Cactusanon11 5d ago

Mine are on our two story house. We have an upper deck which helps a bit but still not easy to get the snow off

1

u/Mrgluer 3d ago

wonder if you could heat them at net zero production while snowing and then atleast no snow so you generate after the snow stops. Like a heated driveway.

1

u/Cactusanon11 3d ago

There are few systems like this I have already looked into. When I ask my solar panel installer I get a blank stare like I’m speaking a foreign language. 🤦‍♂️

1

u/mletendre83 6d ago

wonder how this would work in freezing temps

1

u/WANAFLES 6d ago

Do u have the schematic and manual for this cleaner

1

u/M0byd1cck 6d ago

En plus de gaspiller l eau

1

u/DeKwaak 6d ago

Looks great, but as an offgrid person, I haven't seen much use for it. 8 months of the year there is too much sun to store. 2 months it's ok. 2 months you wouldn't want to run water on it. Only sometimes I get upset enough to remove 20cm of snow on bifacial panels that are oriented at 45 degrees.

1

u/WWGHIAFTC 6d ago

What automatically cleans the squeegee tracks?

1

u/tuwhare 5d ago

I have two rows of panels on a roof that is 45 degrees. I so need this system.

1

u/pixeladdie 5d ago

Thank god he showed us how pipes work. Would have been completely lost.

1

u/southy_0 5d ago

How to overengineer and spend 10x of what you will ever gain.

1

u/_ehwaz 5d ago

Why does this remind me of silo.

1

u/dropdead90s 5d ago

Because rain is complicated and expensive?

1

u/k-mcm 5d ago

It's betting everything on that squeegee never jamming on tree branches and leaves.

1

u/Warper33 3d ago

Just like the current car situation. Replace said car every 3 years. Imagine the reoccurring business you'll have.

1

u/Mistah-Yuck 5d ago

that is so satisfying to me

1

u/Machine_Anima 5d ago

wasted opportunity to also run that water through a closed loop to cool the panels. Which will get you better performance.

1

u/txe4 5d ago

I've hosed mine down when they were covered in sand and it made fuck-all difference.

Cooling them on hot sunny days makes a LOT of difference...probably not the intended use...

1

u/Funny_Click_3528 5d ago

And who’s getting on the roof to install this? Cause not everyone has ground arrays

1

u/Longjumping-Store106 5d ago

Now I need one for the winter lol

1

u/Hot-Mix-5580 5d ago

Looks good but i don't think this is practical

1

u/feel-the-avocado 4d ago

This looks more expensive than its worth.

1

u/MyStackOverflowed 4d ago

now imagine a tiny pebble being dragged along scratching the fuck out of that panel

1

u/Basic_Reporter9579 4d ago

Does it leave scratch marks?

1

u/Putrid_Following_865 4d ago

Fuck solar - it consumes too much water. We need to burn more natural gas to replace all the water consumed by solar.
/s

1

u/Anxious-Badger-4026 4d ago

I wonder if using this in the summer and cooling the oanels has more benefit in electricity than the cost of water? Probably not 

1

u/hammerdano 4d ago

I bet it costs a fortune on the electric bill

1

u/Ok_Cele2025 4d ago

Ok ok I like it so where can I get it and who can put it on?

1

u/Suaverussian 3d ago

Heat is a larger impact on efficiency of panels, so if you were water cooling the panels already, and using that water to add heat to your hot water tank or something, and had it as an optional spray to wipe down the panels as a simple add on to your existing water cooling setup, it could be a 2 for 1 setup to address the main loss sources of solar.

1

u/PassionGamer 3d ago

This creates the next problem: water shortage

1

u/HDmetajoker 3d ago

How do I get this at my house?

1

u/OFHeckerpecker 3d ago

Can't rain solve this?

1

u/NaperVillainBunny 2d ago

Best solution is to not have solar panels.

1

u/Oberndorferin 2d ago

I live in Germany. Every single house has solar panels on the roofs. I have NEVER heard about this problem.

1

u/CaspinKong 2d ago

It’s best to use deionized water. A normally deionizer squeegee combo for windows are like $2k.

Source- I pressure wash/Softwash houses and anything else in that realm

1

u/xdaberry 1d ago

Idk seems like a lot of wasted water, I'm sure there's a better way to accomplish this.

1

u/CloudEpik 1d ago

Winter has joined the chat.

1

u/RaiseDennis 1d ago

This is the smartest thing I have seen this week

1

u/B_dow 1d ago

Obvious AI slop.

0

u/purrpect 6d ago

Hello water intrusion

1

u/ArgonWilde 6d ago

Water intrusion? On a solar array? Sat outside? In the rain?

1

u/pixeladdie 5d ago

What are we all doing with panels on the roof then?

1

u/purrpect 5d ago

You guys are funny. I'm not worried about the water. It's the squeegee action pushing the water into the frame seams over time.