CLEAROSO
A Cleaning Robot for the Solar Panels
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57159/gadl.jcmm.1.2.22013Keywords:
Photovoltaic panel cleaning, Sensors, Robotics, Water-free cleaning, Real-time systemsAbstract
Non-renewable power sources being sustainable have a major impact on controlling global warming. Solar energy is one of the prominent non-renewable energy sources that has been increasingly utilized in recent years to generate solar power using solar panels. The accumulation of dust (also known as soiling) on the surface of solar panels reduces the quantity of sunlight reaching the solar cells beneath, lowering the efficiency of the solar panel. To fully utilize their specified capacity, they must be cleaned regularly, often with water. Cleaning solar panels, especially when large in numbers, consumes much time. The cleaning of solar panels has become complex, complicated, and ultimately costly due to the growing water shortage problem in most parts of the world. The current study also suggests the development of a solar panel cleaning robot to address the issues connected with the traditional technique of solar panel cleaning. In the present work, an appropriate methodology was developed to balance the robot on the solar panel, having the ability to clean the panels with no wastage of water and no damage to the panels. Since the proposed cleaning process is automated, cleaning time was significantly reduced, and the usage of water and the effort of the personnel was eliminated. Several cleaning trials were conducted using the robot, and the result indicated an increase in the overall efficiency of the solar panel cleaning process.
References
I. Dincer, "Renewable energy and sustainable development: A crucial review," Renewable & sustainable energy reviews, vol. 4, pp. 157-175, June 2000.
J. Jurasz, F. A. Canales, A. Kies, M. Guezgouz, and A. Beluco, "A review on the complementarity of renewable energy sources: Concept, metrics, application and future research directions," Solar Energy, vol. 195, pp. 703-724, January 2020.
A. Qazi, F. Hussain, N. A. Rahim, G. Hardaker, D. Alghazzawi, K. Shaban, and K. Haruna, "Towards Sustainable Energy: A Systematic Review of Renewable Energy Sources, Technologies, and Public Opinions," IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 63837-63851, 2019.
J. J. Andreas, C. Burns, and J. Touza, "Renewable Energy as a Luxury? A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of the Role of the Economy in the EU's Renewable Energy Transitions During the ‘Double Crisis'," Ecological Economics, vol. 142, pp. 81-90, December 2017.
G. M. Shafiullah, M. T. Amanullah, A. B. Shawkat Ali, D. Jarvis, and P. Wolfs, "Prospects of renewable energy - a feasibility study in the Australian context," Renewable Energy, vol. 39, pp. 183-197, March 2012.
M. H. Bergin, C. Ghoroi, D. Dixit, J. J. Schauer, and D. T. Shindell, "Large Reductions in Solar Energy Production Due to Dust and Particulate Air Pollution," Environmental Science and Technology Letters, vol. 4, pp. 339-344, August 2017.
R. M. Elavarasan, G. Shafiullah, S. Padmanaban, N. M. Kumar, A. Annam, A. M. Vetrichelvan, L. Mihet-Popa, and J. B. Holm-Nielsen, "A Comprehensive Review on Renewable Energy Development, Challenges, and Policies of Leading Indian States with an International Perspective," IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 74432-74457, 2020.
M. S. Chowdhury, K. S. Rahman, T. Chowdhury, N. Nuthammachot, K. Techato, M. Akhtaruzzaman, S. K. Tiong, K. Sopian, and N. Amin, "An overview of solar photovoltaic panels' end-of-life material recycling," Energy Strategy Reviews, vol. 27, 2020.
J. Manwell, "Hybrid Energy Systems," in Encyclopedia of Energy, pp. 215-229, Elsevier, 2004.
V. Benda, "Photovoltaics, including new technologies (Thin film) and a discussion on module efficiency," in Future Energy: Improved, Sustainable and Clean Options for Our Planet, pp. 375-412, Elsevier, 2020.
V. Fiandra, L. Sannino, C. Andreozzi, F. Corcelli, and G. Graditi, "Silicon photovoltaic modules at end-of-life: Removal of polymeric layers and separation of materials," Waste Management, vol. 87, pp. 97-107, 2019.
S. Mahmoudi, N. Huda, Z. Alavi, M. T. Islam, and M. Behnia, "End-of-life photovoltaic modules: A systematic quantitative literature review," Resources, Conservation and Recycling, vol. 146, pp. 1-16, 2019.
A. Paiano, "Photovoltaic waste assessment in Italy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 41, pp. 99-112, 2015.
J. Farrokhi Derakhshandeh, R. AlLuqman, S. Mohammad, H. AlHussain, G. AlHendi, D. AlEid, and Z. Ahmad, "A comprehensive review of automatic cleaning systems of solar panels," Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, vol. 47, p. 101518, October 2021.
S. Devaraj, P. Selvan, S. D. Blessley, A. S. Murthy, S. Wesley, and M. Samdoss, "An Innovative Method of Solar Panel Cleaning System," International Journal of Advanced Research Trends in Engineering and Technology (IJARTET), vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 17-20, 2018.
M. Rahman, M. A. Islam, A. Z. Karim, and A. H. Ronee, "Effects of Natural Dust on the Performance of PV Panels in Bangladesh," International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 26-32, 2012.
V. S. Saravanan and S. K. Darvekar, "Solar Photovoltaic Panels Cleaning Methods: A Review," International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 118, no. 24, pp. 1-17, 2018.
A. Hussain, A. Batra, and R. Pachauri, "An experimental study on effect of dust on power loss in solar photovoltaic module," Renewables: Wind, Water, and Solar, vol. 4, p. 9, December 2017.
M. R. Maghami, H. Hizam, C. Gomes, M. A. Radzi, M. I. Rezadad, and S. Hajighorbani, "Power loss due to soiling on solar panel: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 59, pp. 1307-1316, 2016.
A. Al Shehri, B. Parrott, P. Carrasco, H. Al Saiari, and I. Taie, "Accelerated testbed for studying the wear, optical and electrical characteristics of dry cleaned PV solar panels," Solar Energy, vol. 146, pp. 8-19, 2017.
M. G. Hudedmani, G. Joshi, R. M. Umayal, and A. Revankar, "A Comparative Study of Dust Cleaning Methods for the Solar PV Panels," Advanced Journal of Graduate Research, vol. 1, pp. 24-29, February 2017.
S. Krauter, "Increased electrical yield via water flow over the front of photovoltaic panels," Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 82, no. 1-2, pp. 131-137, 2004.
C. Demain, M. Journée, and C. Bertrand, "Evaluation of different models to estimate the global solar radiation on inclined surfaces," Renewable Energy, vol. 50, pp. 710-721, 2013.
D. Sera and Y. Baghzouz, "On the impact of partial shading on PV output power," International Conference on Renewable Energy Sources, pp. 0-6, 2008.
M. K. Swain, M. Mishra, R. C. Bansal, and S. Hasan, "A Self-Powered Solar Panel Automated Cleaning System: Design and Testing Analysis," Electric Power Components and Systems, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 308-320, 2021.
K. Chailoet and E. Pengwang, "Assembly of Modular Robot for Cleaning Various Length of Solar Panels," IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 639, no. 1, 2019.
M. K. Ghodki, "An infrared based dust mitigation system operated by the robotic arm for performance improvement of the solar panel," Solar Energy, vol. 244, pp. 343-361, 2022.
N. Ronnaronglit and N. Maneerat, "A cleaning robot for solar panels," Proceeding - 5th International Conference on Engineering, Applied Sciences and Technology, ICEAST 2019, pp. 1-4, July 2019.
S. Santosh Kumar, S. Shankar, and K. Murthy, "Solar Powered PV Panel Cleaning Robot," Proceedings - 5th IEEE International Conference on Recent Trends in Electronics, Information and Communication Technology, RTEICT 2020, pp. 169-172, 2020.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Journal of Computers, Mechanical and Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Journal of Computers, Mechanical and Management applies the CC Attribution- Non-Commercial 4.0 International License to its published articles. While retaining copyright ownership of the content, the journal permits activities such as downloading, reusing, reprinting, modifying, distributing, and copying of the articles, as long as the original authors and source are appropriately cited. Proper attribution is ensured by citing the original publication.
Accepted 2022-12-17
Published 2022-12-31
The journal is licensed under an 