Design and development of autonomous manipulator for solar photovoltaic cleaning

Abstract

The global energy needs have increased significantly in the past several decades and are predicted to rise more than 50% by 2030. At present the energy needs are met mostly from the conventional sources of energy like coal, gas and oil, which are exploited in an unsuitable manner resulting in exhausting global reserves of fossil fuels in the near future. With growing cost of electricity and concern for the environmental impact of fossil fuels, implementation of eco-friendly energy sources like solar power are rising. Electricity generation using PV technology is increasing rapidly throughout the world during the past decade. The prime method for harnessing solar energy is with arrays made up of photovoltaic (PV) panels. Accumulation of dust and debris on a single panel in an array diminishes their efficiency in energy generation considerably and give emphasis to the need to keep the panels surface as clean as possible. Current labor-based cleaning procedures for photovoltaic arrays are expensive in energy usage, water, time and lack automation capabilities. Existing efficiency of Mono crystalline module is 14-16%. After moderate amount of dust deposition, efficiency decreases by 69-97%.