Design and Development of Automated Cleaning System for Solar Panel

The solar PV modules are generally employed in tropical countries like India. Dust and dirt particles accumulating on PV panels decreases the solar energy reaching the cells, thereby reducing their overall power output. The power output reduces as much as by 50% if the module is not cleaned for a month. Hence, cleaning the PV panels is a problem of great practical engineering interest in solar PV power generation. In this paper, the problem is reviewed and methods for dust removal are discussed. In order to regularly clean the dust, an automatic cleaning system has been designed, which senses the dust on the solar panel and also cleans the module automatically. This automatic system helps in maintaining the overall output of the solar firm. For cleaning the PV modules, a mechanism consists of a sliding brushes has been developed. In terms of daily energy generation, the presented automatic-cleaning scheme provides about 30% more energy output when compared to the dust accumulated PV module (module kept stationary on ground).