How to clean solar panels without water

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

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Cleaning solar panels currently is estimated to use about 10 billion gallons of water per year - enough to supply drinking water for up to 2 million people. A new cleaning method could remove dust on solar installations, improving overall efficiency, without using water. (Learn more: news.mit.edu/2...)
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6 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 891

@cirusMEDIA 2 года назад

Sand is not dust my friend. I was hoping to see this method tackle the real problem... which is dust left behind after rain fall or due build up. Still rather interesting!!

@op3129 2 года назад

"This technique mainly works because 80 percent of dust particles contain a mineral called silica, an insulating material that acquires electrical charge because it absorbs moisture from the surrounding environment. As long as there’s enough humidity in the air (above 20 to 30 percent), there’s enough moisture for the silica to absorb, Panat said. Fortunately, too little moisture in dry regions like in the desert doesn’t pose that much of a problem since humidity tends to fluctuate where it’s highest at night. For those regions, Panat said, the solar panel’s repulsion system can be timed to go off during periods of optimal humidity."

@jacklol4248 2 года назад

Air pressure

@reddog418 2 года назад

@@jacklol4248 ding ding ding, the only solution.

@Briongloid23 2 года назад

Glaubst de Wissenschoftla wissen weniger ois du, du obagscheita Pseudonerd?

@PM-wt3ye 2 года назад

@@jacklol4248 Even before using 1l of water i would have thought that AIR would be solution N1!! I didnt know that there was used water, this makes PV even worse as it has been before due to its costs, metal (pollution) and bad efficiency.

@zhang_han 2 года назад

I see there's some residue left after the electrostatic scanning. So then for those dust molecules that are neutral charge, would they remain on the solar panel surface with this method of cleaning, and will they continue to accumulate over time?

@dhruvsingh3062 2 года назад

Yea i was thinking the same

@miscellaneousz2681 2 года назад

They would, this is bullshit

@scottwilliams3665 2 года назад

Agree

@vish5798 2 года назад

Ya doesn't seem like that is going away

@podir47 2 года назад

Perhaps, but it would seem that because charged and uncharged particles still possess very similar masses, morphologies and so on, there should be constant mixing between them. In addition, uncharged particles at the time of one scanning can become charged by the next scanning. Also, the charged particles removed by the system carry some uncharged particles with them due to friction. I guess that the average (daily-maximal) humidity is a key component in defining the steady state percentage of uncharged particles, which in turn would be a key indicator of the system's efficiency. But let's wait for the large scale experiments, it's intriguing.

@AtlasReburdened 2 года назад

Seems great in theory, and it works alright for a handful of bone dry sand in a laboratory, but real outdoor air contains a lot of stuff. Volatile organics, biofilm forming bacteria, and petrochemical haze will all contribute to the formation of a layer of conglomerated dust that will be resistant to electrostatic cleaning, so eventually water will have to be used to clean that layer off, just less often. Less often enough to make the saved water worth more than the cost of installation and operation? Who knows. I guess we'll see in field testing.

@tanmaysingh267 2 года назад

Why not use air compressor

@AtlasReburdened 2 года назад

@@tanmaysingh267 I suspect the power requirements of compressing air enough to work would be more than the extra power from cleaning the panel, but I've been wrong about simpler things so I figure it's worth a try.

@tanmaysingh267 2 года назад

@@AtlasReburdened just use a leaf blower with tiny nossles i have solar system at home with exact same mechanism

@fyfaenihelvete 2 года назад

Cost of water is not just in dollars, but in sustainability overall.

@AtlasReburdened 2 года назад

@@fyfaenihelvete Very true, which is why I avoided attributing a metric to the word worth.

@nomadic_rider42 2 года назад

It's not always the dust that covers solar panels. Often times it's a bird poo and one has to use water for that, otherwise just use compressed air to clean up the panels.

@vaakdemandante8772 2 года назад

compressing air takes energy, so it lowers pv efficiency

@tardonator 2 года назад

@@vaakdemandante8772 So electrostatically charging the panels and moving the electrode across the surface takes what? magic?

@hippopotamus86 2 года назад

@@tardonator Probably less energy, but it doesn't look to be all that effective.

@rupe53 2 года назад

@Dacia Sandero guys ... the point is where to get enough water in a dry region? Trucking it in is costly.

@riscnx 2 года назад

@@rupe53 Pipe line from wet regions. If you can make roads for trucks, how is a water pipe a big deal?

@Dx-Dm 2 года назад

Outstanding work. I can only imagine the extraterrestrial applications.

@zpd8003 2 года назад

don't care about extraterrestrial applications. We have enough problems here on planet Earth that need solving.

@Dx-Dm 2 года назад

@@zpd8003 There is often a complementary relationship between extraterrestrial and terrestrial applications of technology. Many space-relevant innovations assist in improving quality of life and energy efficiency on Earth. Also, the budgets of NASA or other spacefaring organizations do not adversely impact community-based solar panel engineering. I don't see why we should consider them as mutually exclusive.

@SianaGearz 2 года назад

Extraterrestrial? Just hire illegal aliens duh...

@absalomdraconis 2 года назад

@@zpd8003 : Long-lasting problems are often extremely difficult problems. After a point, it becomes more effective to improve things by investing in "unimportant" and "useless" things than to continue chasing the same frustrations endlessly.

@manuelimboden1582 2 года назад

My thought exactly - very pertinent tech given the likely imminent demise of InSight in the Martian winter.

@AyushKumar-ic5hk 2 года назад

Why not just use a fan? Also wouldn't the charging action damage the components withing the solar panel? (Not being condescending, just curious)

@sakshamkhare7411 2 года назад

I had the Same question

@vasiovasio 2 года назад

I want too. If someone with more information let's share it here. Maybe when the sand is moved with air it scratch the panels...

@bagallah 2 года назад

@@vasiovasio moving sand would be very common if you install panels in a sandy environment, so thats out of question

@paramdeeps7217 2 года назад

It's because if we use fan the dust from one solar panel will accumulate over other , and the process will go on forever. By the way we can use vaccum cleaner but not sure about the power consumption by them.

@BullCheatFR 2 года назад

Because it doesn't work, no matter how hard you blow on them. The sand seems to bond to the panels - maybe the wind creates a potential that attracts the sand.

@roidroid 2 года назад

Looks like it cleans away sand, but not dust

@hippopotamus86 2 года назад

Perhaps better to use water, then reclaim as much of the water as possible, filtering etc.

@itsourlife 2 года назад

@@hippopotamus86 Every efficient water purification system consumes electricity. Moreover the water quality has to be extremely good better than drinking water which is only possible with RO systems.

@hippopotamus86 2 года назад

@@itsourlife Filter it to reuse on the solar panels I mean. Gravity will be enough to filter it.

@itsourlife 2 года назад

@@hippopotamus86 gravity will filter water to better than drinking water quality?

@yourearent 2 года назад

They said it reclaims 95% of the power output so it mustn’t matter much

@roboticbrain2027 2 года назад

Interesting approach but i don't really get the problem... You don't have to use fresh drinking water to clean some solarpanels. Also you can pretty easily recover the water and filter it for reuse. So no water is actually "used up". I think this is a solution to a problem which doesn't exist.

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

It basically is. And it'd be cheaper and more efficient to just install a well for a large solar farm.

@mrgreatauk 2 года назад

@@rockspoon6528 Groundwater can be a very limited and important resource in arid areas, so if you have a bunch of solar farms all taking water from wells or boreholes or might have a significant impact elsewhere (eg river sources or watering holes drying up, plants with long roots to access water being unable to do so and dying etc). Agree it must be possible to reuse most water used in washing though.

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

@@mrgreatauk I might be a bit biased towards wells as most of my desert experience has been in Nevada, where the majority of the state has access to deep underground reservoirs whose draining not only doesn't have a negative impact on surface levels, but actually improves them a water which was simply... existing... deep underground re-entered the water cycle above.

@mrgreatauk 2 года назад

@@rockspoon6528 fair enough, yeah each area is different depending on the geology and where the water is actually coming from etc. I'm from the UK and there are some areas where flow in little streams etc cam be really sensitive to groundwater levels, and other areas where there's a pretty small impact, the only real issue being if levels drop really low then salty water from elsewhere starts getting drawn in ruining the water source.

@itsourlife 2 года назад

Fresh water is a must in fact I would have used better than drinking water to clean solar panels. Anything else would cause heavy deposits.

@LZ--- 2 года назад

why not use a controlled stream of air, blowing the dust off the surfaces the panels?

@mofuker199 2 года назад

probably not energy efficient

@yayayayya4731 2 года назад

@@mofuker199 an air blow will blow most of the sand of, while in the video, the setup still had some sand left. + A blow of air won't suck up too much energy

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

@@mofuker199 There is no way in hell that it would be less energy efficient than charge repulsion.

@vitr0n 2 года назад

Questions: can this system remove wet dust particles too?

@simongross3122 2 года назад

Haha probably not

@jacklol4248 2 года назад

Air pressure

@redi6460 2 года назад

Wet, how is it wet?

@Wm.Havens 2 года назад

@@redi6460 Humidity, even in the desert

@surkh 2 года назад

1:58 "Electrostatic repulsion.... has... immense potential" Sreedath getting his electrical pun game on! :-D

@chbrosz 2 года назад

to be a real solution, would need to repel various types of soiling. also love that whoever edited this vid decided to use CSP heliostats for their b-roll instead of PV arrays 🤦‍♂

@David-gk2ml 2 года назад

yes and yet it might work for mirrors too

@JoshuaRes 2 года назад

I was thinking the same thing!

@mikehunt3102 2 года назад

Mirrors also require cleaning to perform at their peak

@ingusmant 2 года назад

But it would requiere an overhaul of existing panels? Wouldn't compressed air be easier to implement?

@theavaliengineer 2 года назад

Compressed air would make the dust scratch up the panels.

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

@@theavaliengineer And this wouldn't even get it off in the first place. What's your point?

@Jose-tw9bl 2 года назад

Would compressed air also do the job without scratching the surface?

@jonwelch564 2 года назад

You'd think so, then again it might act like sand blasting. Who knows!

@Jose-tw9bl 2 года назад

@@jonwelch564 well thought, it could be even worse than traditional washing🙈

@danieldey 2 года назад

same question, maybe they can develop it so that the sand blasting effects are minimised? What about vacuuming?

@koalabanana1998 2 года назад

its expensive and the sand particles sort of stick onto the pv cells

@GermanTopGameTV 2 года назад

How about just having a constant stream of compressed air travel down the solar panel to make sure nothing ever settles on the cell in the first place? It cant stick to it if it never passes through the boundary layer.

@deepthiks9338 2 года назад

Congratulations sreedath sir Praburaj sir always talks about you (From learners' home)

@rakshitpaliwal8778 2 года назад

We can also use vacuum cleaning technique

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

Ya don't need to go to MIT to know when a leaf-blower will do.

@SecurityPanda 2 года назад

@Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ), Can we not use inbuilt motor vibrators the way we have for mobile devices so that the dust / sand particles are bounced off from the surface using a small portion of electricity which the panel generates from time to time ?

@saljuapi 2 года назад

if we can produce anti-dust glass material or applicable dust repellent that would resolve the main problem

@itsourlife 2 года назад

Right.

@prateekpanwar646 2 года назад

If it was possible, They would have already done that lol.

@jonny5alive123 2 года назад

Isn't using electricity to move the sand/dust going to require a huge amount of energy if you're cleaning something like a solar farm? Sure you didn't use any water but instead you're using a huge amount of power to do the same job. Plus in your demo it doesn't even fully clean the small piece of glass.

@roidroid 2 года назад

It literally makes electricity, it's a solar panel

@lifeisshort921 2 года назад

Basically, what he's asking is: would the amount of energy used with this method offset that of purifying the water necessary to clean? A valid question.

@Markle2k 2 года назад

Power is volts times amps. High voltage does not necessarily equate to high power. You need enough voltage to charge the particles and then the amps is going to be related to the amount of energy required to move the particles to the collector, plus losses. None of these details are in the linked article. Interestingly, the article mentions that humidity is crucial to the process working.

@lifeisshort921 2 года назад

@@Markle2k The humidity part is very interesting and could limit the application of this in arid environments, where the humidity doesn't exceed 30% during summer seasons.

@Markle2k 2 года назад

@@lifeisshort921 If you read the article, it's linked in the video description and not very long, they say that when the temperatures go down in many arid sites, the RH climbs high enough. They suggest cleaning in the morning as a workaround. Deserts do tend to get cold at night. Desert plants often survive by harvesting dew.

@amalkrishna3426 2 года назад

Congratulations sreedath sir Prabhuraj sir always say's about you. From learners' home

@ЕвгенийЧ-и1н 2 года назад

Крупные частицы улетают, а самая главная проблема - это мелкая пыль. Пыль остаётся на панели :( Как с пылью бороться?

@Alteczar 2 года назад

I don't understand why air or sound would not work to remove the sand

@simongross3122 2 года назад

Or vibrating the panels themselves to shake the dust loose

@gopackgo4036 2 года назад

Yep, the real problem is other trace containments. If it was just sand like in the lab no need for that fancy system.

@RK-1956 2 года назад

Great idea using electrostatics to remove the dust. Could you use the same electrostatic repulsion to prevent the dust accumulation in the first place?

@ace6396 2 года назад

Not a quite energy efficient idea to have electrostatic repulsion all day long

@RK-1956 2 года назад

@@ace6396 I understand the ineffency of running all the time. Maybe a periodic repulsion pulse would work. My main thought is to eliminate the extra mechanical parts.

@ace6396 2 года назад

@@RK-1956 Don't you think it can cause micro scratches on using repulsion rather than attraction.

@RK-1956 2 года назад

@@ace6396 I have no idea. It'll take someone a lot smarter than me to answer that question.

@simongross3122 2 года назад

This reminds me of the degaussing setting we used to have on CRT monitors. Could we use something like this for cleaning windows of office buildings?

@tomthoe 2 года назад

Could you hook a speaker up to the back of the solar panel and use the distributed vibrations to clear the panels? This would eliminate an additional mechanism that would eventually be affected by the sand and dust.

@markthornemarmaduke 2 года назад

"have you got any Dusty Springfield? You don't take requests? Dust My Broom?"

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

"A better idea that uses existing tech? Fuck off, we're trying to graduate here" -MIT students, probably.

@atharvkashyap6510 2 года назад

I wish to one day be a part of this engineering group to create significant change in the world. Great job guys!

@andrewadami3920 2 года назад

I must say that these particles must be stuck onto the surface, otherwise the built in motors that rotate the panels would be sufficient at achieveing the same effect. Change the angle of the panel and gravity should pull the particles to the floor. So assuming the particles are stuck on. Then it would also be assumed that the cohesion force of said particles is probably stronger than the force exerted by this device being developed. This is probably wasted funding.

@kylejohnson6775 2 года назад

So I'm curious why brushing causes scratch damage over time? Can you not make a brush where the bristles are significantly softer than the surface they're cleaning so they don't cause scratch damage? Or does the scratch damage come from the sand particles being dragged across the surface of the panel?

@bengoodchild883 2 года назад

Incredible idea! I wish you all the best in scaling it up :) The problem you are trying to solve got me thinking; Could a closer to loop system that still used water be employed to retain the solvent benefits of water while reducing the consumption problem? Prevent as much water loss due to evaporation using a sealed armature that sweeps over the panel. After each panel (or X set of panels realistically) allow the reservoir tank to rest and settle out the collected particulates to reduce filtration requirements? This would take a lot of work to develop but now I want to try it.

@pcwcol 2 года назад

Yeah. not that different from a carpet cleaner...

@typhoys 2 года назад

Might work but water has to be introduced into the system initially, for large scale solar farms this might be a big number

@JustIn-sr1xe 2 года назад

What about a simple vibration based system? Most of these panels are at a steep enough angle that the particles should fall off with a slight bump, right?

@REVOLUTIONS51 2 года назад

As a scale model builder, working with tiny grass filament and applying them by with an electrostatic applicator (basically the same tecnology shown here), I actually tough of removing dust from surfaces, even tried it, but never linked it with the benefits of large scale, no water, automated system for solar panels. Nice.

@Anenome5 2 года назад

I think you a word.

@yaashjeeth8672 2 года назад

Congratulations sreedath sir Praburaj sir always talks about you ( from learners' home )

@nestor1208 2 года назад

Here's an interesting solution (expensive, but i think it's worth to try). Sand is 6 on Mohs scale. Ceramic is 8. There are phones that have ceramic glass. Why not try to make ceramic coating as cheap as humanly possible, and then just brush the sand off without worrying about scratches? Moreover, the advances in such ceramic coating will be applicable not only for solar panels, but in many other places (such as phones, glasses, windshields, etc.)

@smellycat249 2 года назад

This won’t take off the layer of grime that builds up over time. It won’t remove molds that develop along the lower edge of modules. It is a nice idea that a student has, that will only be a waste of money and time in the field.

@skaramicke 2 года назад

As long as you source the water from rain filled lakes that have rivers leading back to the ocean, the water you use on the solar panels is not "consumed". It evaporates and rains back in oceans and lakes again. The only waste is the energy it takes to pump and transfer the water to the desert areas.

@planefan082 2 года назад

Yes...but this is mainly for desert solar farms, where rain-filled lakes are not super common

@janisvaskevics93 2 года назад

Have we moved over pneumatic system already? Creating static on solar panels seems a bit like looking for dangers for the fun of it.

@AnimikhAich 2 года назад

Just an Idea: Instead of electrostatic repulsion, why not use Acoustic Vibrations to displace the dust particles from the surface of the solar panels? Think of it like putting salt/sand on a subwoofer.

@GoSpringboksGo 2 года назад

Why isn‘t high pressured air an option?

@teslasd4796 2 года назад

Seem like a small shop vac and a dust brush the width of the panel would do . Kinda like a windsheild wiper but for solar panels.

@mmmmm5770 2 года назад

MIT always come up with a complex solution for simple problems and forget to solve the problems which needs to be addressed

@imms2010 2 года назад

Great work. Is cleaning solar panels really necessary if panels are kept at 20+ angle? Most of the large dust particles will fall off and the remaining amount should not impact the efficiency that much.

@Mehhemo 2 года назад

I have solar panels and the small amount of debris that remains can have a significant effect on ur production. Its why we tend to use water to clean them

@citizen_of_the_stars5144 2 года назад

That's the problem here, the demonstation is made with dust which has virtually no adherence to the solar panel, the actual panels who need to get cleaned have the sand/dust stuck on them from previous rains or other events, and that's why even at a 20° angle they don't fall, but that is also why this solution seems kind of useless? time will tell i guess

@yoldakibiri 2 года назад

@@citizen_of_the_stars5144 Definitely I was looking for this comment.

@acidset 2 года назад

@@citizen_of_the_stars5144 good point, we'll see how they actually fare out there I'll also add that periodical scrubbing with water (if necessary) if this system were to leave residue is still ideal compared to what we have now

@simongross3122 2 года назад

@@acidset True, but perhaps it can reduce the frequency of water scrubbing and still save a bit of fresh water

@dirtydeedsdirtcheep3007 2 года назад

This just makes me happy

@Bob_Adkins 2 года назад

Morning dew, dust that settles on panels, and critters that crawl across them make a rich brew that algae and mildew like to grow on. This makes large solar farms impractical in some areas, but great for homeowners, providing the panels are ground mounted.

@RaulAyanami 2 года назад

Yeah, now try removing bird poop with that xD

@joeyglasser2574 2 года назад

Why not just use pressurized air to blow the sand off? If that is a solution then this seems over-engineered. Regardless, this is a great invention.

@Thebreakdownshow1 2 года назад

Why not reuse the water being used to clean the panels? Like as it washes down you collect it down stream?

@rage3303 2 года назад

Nice application, but here are few challenges to it, 1. Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide will reducen its strength to hold charge at high desert temperatures. 2. Dust and debris will significantly create a deeper layer of dust with time, whereas we will just remove bigger sand particles. 3. Energy is needed in this system to operate, which is negotiable. 4. There could be charge leakage which may effect the semiconductor in sensitive solar cells. 5. The cost of its application will be lot expensive. 6. It will need a lot of maintenance, like we need to change the chemical based electrodes time to time due to decay. Overall, idea is great, but practically speaking, it has a lot of challenges to overcome. Right now the best thing, i can say off is just using medium pressure air cleaning, which does not require any transportation or water resource.

@TadeoPontecorvo 2 года назад

Kudos for the entusiasm on doing something that will never see the light of the sun!

@arvin6606 2 года назад

Best way is using scheduled water spray then the water drop is going into water tank so it can be filtered and reuse.

@easymaths7094 2 года назад

Congratulations to Sreedath Panat and MIT for inventing the Electrostatic Repulsion of dust particles from solar panels which adds the efficiency and life of the system.

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

Do you believe everything you see on the internet, or can you apply critical thinking?

@user-kakul Год назад

It's an incredible and fantastic technique to clean the solar panels without damaging them and also by keeping in mind the alarming needs of freshwater in the world. Great work by the brilliant research group. Many many Congratulations to the whole team......Keep going. Wishing you all the good wishes for future👍👍👍👍

@naruto6918 2 года назад

Can we use wind blow or something else to clean it without using power ??

@hippopotamus86 2 года назад

Would be useful on Mars rovers. The whole water thing though, the problem is having to transport the water. He said that the water used can supply 1 million people for a year in developing countries. The same issues exist, transporting water to them. Water used to wash solar panels doesn't disappear. It evaporates and rains back down somewhere else.

@manamsetty2664 2 года назад

Hey but the dust that was remaining on the panel is the actual type of dust which is to be cleaned

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

Thank you for using your brain- it's surprisingly rare...

@loafandjug321 2 года назад

The problem isn't sand. The problem is the solar panel is exposed to *ANY* environment. Focus.

@blingbling2841 2 года назад

On another note, fitting millions of panels with a control system and actuator arms hovering around the setup would not only add significantly to the footprint of the panel weight, but additional need for balancing and arrangements needed to compensate for the same. Instead I would rather have the researchers collaborate with robotic manufacturers (think Boston Dynamics etc) so that a group of robots could move around the field going on periodic trips and use the same tech but which would be built upon itself instead. This would cut costs significantly in my opinion and thereby add to the interest of solar companies to adopt the tech.

@AlexBesogonov 2 года назад

The arms won't be fixed, they'll be mounted on a moveable system. The panels will just need a layer of indium tin oxide.

@mosesmanaka8109 2 года назад

Here is an idea. Just collect the water used to clean the panels. It's called "recycling", not sure whether you have heard of the term before but try it.

@964cuplove 2 года назад

When the electrode moves across you need a tilting motion at both ends of the pass to loose the stuff that you collected

@alpha_pixel_ 2 года назад

Ultrasonic vibration can clean it easily. Many camera sensors use this to self clean.

@harmhoeks5996 2 года назад

You can immediately start large scale experiment. PV is cheap. It seems that the machine is very complex however. And i assume the coating isnt temporary or harmful to production?

@madsmile777 2 года назад

Awesome, but small dust coating is still on the elrment and it looks visibly worse than before sand application.

@Bboy_Channel_H 2 года назад

Is there any Electric spark and ignition issues due to static voltage

@stickynorth 2 года назад

An interesting solution to an emerging problem... Can't wait to see more updates!

@AlexKasper 2 года назад

Not compressed air?

@ashishkathait6866 2 года назад

That's what I was thinking as much better then this result's can be achieved without much of complication. I think it's much of an idea rather then a practical solution as of now.

@abeabe3175 2 года назад

It would probably be easier to design a water catchment system with a filter to recycle the water.

@vincentzakuwan1521 2 года назад

Yep, why not just reuse the water

@AzeemMia 2 года назад

Maybe a vacuum cleaner attachment with that technology will be a good ideia to start

@Bloated_Tony_Danza 2 года назад

Coal plants have been using this technology for years, this isn’t some new invention. Electrostatic precipitators I believe? They use it to capture particle emissions before they blow out of the smoke stacks. The efficacy of the system depends on the specific types of coal, because some coals produce more electrically neutral ash particles than others, and therefore can not be captured by the precipitators alone. TL;DR Coal did it first, not all the dust can be removed. MIT didn’t invent this technology.

@imerence6290 2 года назад

Put a reusable transparent layer on top of the solar cell. Now clean this layer however you wish as this is not a part of the solar cell

@videogalore 2 года назад

It would be quite a scale (and not work on the type of array shown here), but if the panels were in continuous banks then rainwater harvesting at the point of use would cut down water requirements. It's obviously very specific to an area as to how much rain they get and you need to be able to store this underground, but essentially this would remove the need to bring water in from elsewhere. I think it's the cost of water that means this won't be done in most cases currently as it's so relatively cheap.

@Adarsha3 2 года назад

How about vibrating panel every now and then to remove dust using gravity.

@Patmanduu 2 года назад

What about a leaf blower strapped to big robot arm? And put a fence around the facility to keep some of the dust out.

@rckanyakumari 2 года назад

Great work. Congratulation to the MIT team for their dedication, and effort. This product will not only clean solar panels but it will also increase the life span of panels.

@kubagra456 2 года назад

Thing is, that it only removed whole grains of sand and not dust which was still left on glass. This "MIT team" could come up with either glass to which dust wouldnt stick as much or a high-pressure air compressor for better results

@martinbabl1635 2 года назад

Compressed air has been used by many to remove dust from objects; most notably PC cases.

@sanjeevkmaurya-d2653 2 года назад

Cost is a big concern.

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

@@sanjeevkmaurya-d2653 Cost is not a fucking concern with compressed air, especially when your suggested alternative is to install mechanical actuators with charged plates onto each solar panel.

@asdfhun 2 года назад

And why would be a good ide to basically sandblast the solar panels? Cause that's what you would end up doing, if you start blowing sand from a surface, it scartches the surface.

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

@@asdfhun The wind: Allow me to introduce myself...

@saurabhsharma2447 2 года назад

Wonder if this will work with mud which falls with rain.

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

It won't.

@ngroy8636 2 года назад

Why not compressed air? You're producing excessive electricity anyways - use them as energy storage and cleaning medium at once

@Mike__B 2 года назад

Gotta say the "after dust removal" panel looked WAY dirtier than my panels ever get, and if that can end up outputting that much power I think I'm good with the current way of things.

@RohitChauhan-hy9lm 2 года назад

We can remove sand dust with the help of compressed air or fan, But what about small micro dust which stick on panel, for that we need water or cloth or viper.

@neilcoelho 2 года назад

Why not just use compressed air?

@trygveevensen171 2 года назад

How about a modified pressure washer that blasts air instead water, would that work?

@SC-dr4wk 2 года назад

Is it efficient enough for a commercial use afterall that's the most important part for adaptability?

@lebimas 2 года назад

0:45 “30 billion gallons” does not need a “$” dollar sign in front of the “30” in the closed captions ^ For the video channel manager’s reference

@grahampalmer 2 года назад

Would it be practical to isolate the surface of the panels from the problem ie the dust environment? For instance, physically sealing lengths of panels within a clear flexible cover (front and back like two sides of a bag) and use a conveyor belt type design to constantly shift/rotate the cover like a conveyor so that the dust is transported to one end of the lengths of panels to simply fall to the ground. Maybe just vibrating the cover or forget the cover and just vibrate the panels themselves to achieve the desired goal. The panels themselves might even be made to power the conveyor or a vibrator belt. To clarify, if I didn't make it clear enough before, a loop of clear flexible material (not affecting the panel's performance) would run over the panels and then behind the panels to protect them from the dust. The cover, could rotate or vibrate to dislodge the dust. Note: The panel frames would need to be of a modified design for a conveyor system to work but not necessarily for a vibrator system. Thoughts?

@alfworks 2 года назад

I believe same can be achieved with high compressed air - I would argue it wouldn't even leave a residue like is visible on video

@mrgreatauk 2 года назад

Should look at low tech ways to reduce water use too, eg recovering water from drains on each panel during washing, maybe also washing at night to reduce evaporation

@Natethesandman1 2 года назад

Don’t TVs and camera sensors do this already by reversing charge on the surface? The difference is that this now has another surface to attract rather than only repel.

@gyropyro 2 года назад

What's wrong with using pressurized air ?

@holy_roman_emperor01 2 года назад

very good and very sensible!.

@DarkGT 2 года назад

Sound expensive. I have another idea - compressing air and using it to blow the dust away. No deep scratches, no water waste.

@roldann9125 2 года назад

Another video of MIT, gonna enjoy it!

@MasterCivilEngineering 2 года назад

Master the concepts of practical engineering here 👌

@rockspoon6528 2 года назад

Less efficient and effective than an off-the-shelf leaf blower and requiring a few additional mechanical actuators on each solar panel array. This idea ain't practical.

@Akash.Chopra 2 года назад

If you are using power draw from the panels, why not add a compressed air device that can spray a burst of air every x hours?

@Wildminecraftwolf 2 года назад

Its not that there is not enough water or food for the people who cant get any, its that they live in such remote locations, that getting the food and water to them is hard.

@guneethh1201 2 года назад

I had a question , why not use a vibrator which vibrates intensly and making the surface slippery as possible !

@calinpetrescu9128 2 года назад

How much energy are they using to clean? How did no one think of asking this?

@flytie3861 2 года назад

But what about mud and stains?

@polarkerr 2 года назад

Good idea, but why wouldn't high pressure Air nozzles do the same more efficiently, without blocking the sun light

@liggerstuxin1 2 года назад

Looks like the really fine pieces of dust stay though

@foreveryoung4667 2 года назад

Water also cools down the plate

@mihir51modi 2 года назад

can't we use compressed air?

@merlys4476 2 года назад

Hi, Im from India. I would like to know about the medicine DRACO, which is invented by MIT.Could you please tell its indication & is it uses for Covid 19?