The photovoltaic industry has entered its self -replicating phase

Maximize the performance of solar panels is one of the great challenges of Photovoltaic industry. But it is something that is not limited to make more efficient panelsbut to engineer ways that they stay clean for longer. Because the great enemy of the panels are not the clouds, but dust or snow.

Cleaning these homemade panels is clue For three reasons. The first is that a clean panel is more efficient. According to estimatesa dirty panel produces up to 39% less a year. The useful life of them increases because corrosion and other damages are avoided and, as more electricity generates, production is optimized and the Investment return.

There is robots designed to clean them And we have seen them in all shapes and sizes, even tractors manually operated with a roller that rubs the surface of the panels, but one of the challenges is how to optimize the cleaning of the panels in the huge ‘farm’ installed in deserts such as Chili, China either India.

And the answer is another robot, but not anyone: a robot that in turn is a solar panel.

Solar panels that clean solar panels that clean …

Be more or less autonomous, robots need energy to work. It can be through long cables that feed them or by batteries in the longest facilities, so when they are not cleaning, they are wasting time. Especially in desert scenarios in which dust is a problem.

And the sauce of this matter is the following video:

What we see in Action is a robot of the Chinese company Sunpure, a company that has specialized precisely in the creation of devices to clean solar panels. Beyond the conventional ones, they have two models that have a solar panel in the upper part that is the one that provides energy so that the rollers work and can give the necessary passes by the rows of panels.

One is that of the upper video, called Venus, another is the one that we leave below:

The difference between this and Venus is that the new robot has more upper surface occupied by the solar food panel, seems more adaptable to different panel sizes and, above all, is easier to clean. The reason? When it reaches the end of the row, a brush awaits you that passes the panel of the robot itself, cleaning the dust that may have accumulated.

This cleaner robot has already been installed in some photovoltaic plants, such as those of India or Uzbekistan, and the previous model is the one that works cleaning The CME1 panels, the largest photovoltaic plant in Chile In the Atacama desert.

They are curious, but beyond that, this type of robots is a necessity. Equipo them with solar panels is a good idea that they can perform those cleaning tasks in locations in which dust is a problem. In fact, those of this company are working, above all, in plants installed in deserts.

Now, the great step of the industry both in the face of mass production and the most homemade is the creation of self -impossible solar panels. It is something that is already working on, with advances as interesting as that of the Startup Sol Clarity, a company derived from the University of Boston.

Baptized as electrodynamic scren, it is a very thin and transparent sheet that Load dust particles with static And, when he has caught them, the ‘sweep’ using electromagnetic waves. It is a good solution not to depend on robots and not be the black water hole which is the current cleaning of large -scale solar panels.

And in a sector in which every kilowatt counts, that they are as clean as possible.

Images and videos | Sunpure

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