Solar Panel Automatic Cleaning System

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give an innovative concept to handle energy demand around the world is increasing rapidly for many applications. Renewable sources of energy are solar, wind and geothermal which are inexhaustible. Solar energy is abundant in nature and is proving its existence for many applications like street lighting, house hold appliances, water heating, agricultural and industrial purpose. One of the way to harness solar energy is done by using solar panels. Limitation of solar energy is its efficiency for any application due to the factors like dust, humidity, temperature etc. Electrical parameters of solar panel are sensitive to accumulated dust density and will affect the transmittance of the solar panel thereby reduce its efficiency. In order to overcome this problem, it is necessary to clean the solar panels regularly. One of the method is to increase the efficiency of solar panel is by removing the dust accumulated on solar panel. Cleaning of solar panels is difficult task. The normal way to clean the solar panels is washing them manually but it is not reliable and economical. In this regard a work is taken up to design and implement the automatic dust cleaning mechanism for solar panel. The designed automatic cleaning mechanism consists of IR LED, Photo diode arrangement in order to sense the dust accumulated on solar panel. The efficiency of solar panel is determined by taking the readings of voltage and current of particular panel with and without dust for various days, weeks and months. By the recorded values efficiency comparison of solar panel with dust and without dust is made. The designed automatic cleaning system produces an effective, non-abrasive cleaning and avoids irregularities in the generation of power due to the deposition of dust on the solar panel. From the study it is proved that average efficiency of solar panel increases about 1.6% to 2.2% by regular cleaning. Thus developed model maximizes the efficiency.