ABSTRACT India is one of the few countries endowed with abundant solar energy. The country receives about 5000Trillion KWh/year, which is more than sufficient to satisfy the power requirement of the entire nation. With more than 300 million people without access to uninterrupted supply of electricity and industries citing energy shortage as key growth barrier in India, solar power has the potential to help the country address the shortage of power for economic growth. Many industries and solar parks have adopted for power generation using solar energy and many more are proposing to do so. One of the challenges with solar power is keeping the panels clean. That’s particularly challenging for large solar parks, especially ones that are located in the desert, where there is little water. Accumulation of dust on the surface of solar panels reduces the amount of radiation reaching it. This leads to loss in generated electric power and formation of hotspots which would permanently damage the solar panel. Even a little bit of dust, for example one-seventh of an ounce per square yard (= 4 grams / square meter) —can weaken a panel’s power conversion by 40%.Large-scale solar PV installations, such as those found in the United States, Spain, Germany, the Middle East, Australia and India are almost ideally located in sunny desert areas. But dry weather
India is one of the few countries endowed with abundant solar
energy. The country receives about 5000Trillion KWh/year, which is
more than sufficient to satisfy the power requirement of the entire
nation. With more than 300 million people without access to
uninterrupted supply of electricity and industries citing energy
shortage as key growth barrier in India, solar power has the
potential to help the country address the shortage of power for
economic growth. Many industries and solar parks have adopted for
power generation using solar energy and many more are proposing to
do so. One of the challenges with solar power is keeping the panels
clean. Thats particularly challenging for large solar parks,
especially ones that are located in the desert, where there is
little water. Accumulation of dust on the surface of solar panels
reduces the amount of radiation reaching it. This leads to loss in
generated electric power and formation of hotspots which would
permanently damage the solar panel. Even a little bit of dust, for
example one-seventh of an ounce per square yard (= 4 grams / square
meter) can weaken a panels power conversion by 40%.Large-scale
solar PV installations, such as those found in the United States,
Spain, Germany, the Middle East, Australia and India are almost
ideally located in sunny desert areas. But dry weather and winds
sweep dust into the air and deposit it on the surfaces of the PV
panels.Using Autonomous solar panel cleaning robot, especially in
areas where water is scarce could overcome one of the significant
challenges to achieving optimum results from the solar
installation. While developing a cleaning system, two things are
primary for the system, the moving mechanism and cleaning
mechanism. After intensive study and advise from our guide, we have
decided to go ahead with Lead screw mechanism for moving and a
micro-fibre or sponge element for cleaning.
