Israel-based Ecoppia, developer of automated, water-free photovoltaic (PV) solar panel cleaning solutions, has launched a new robot system named E4.
The company claims E4 is able to remove 99 percent of dust off the face of solar panels without using water.
The advanced control system of E4, supported by real-time weather forecast data from The Weather Channel, allows it to be programmed with a customized cleaning schedule.
At present Ecoppia has installed E4 systems at five solar farms in the Middle East, which have total capacity of 35 MW.
In all, the system now cleans five million panels each month, according to a statement.
“Soiling can reduce overall energy generation by 40 percent, which significantly eats into return on investment,” Eran Meller, the CEO of Ecoppia, said. “E4 solution cost-effectively cleans large-scale installations, and without wasting dwindling water resources in the process.”
The systems can be retrofitted on existing solar power plants. Ecoppia claims it installed E4 systems at solar farms developed by Arava Power, in just six months.
Three of the systems are located in the Arava desert, which is hit by dust storms originating in Saudi Arabia.
The remaining plants are in the Negev desert, which gets its share of dust from winds blowing in from the sub-Sahara region.
These plants were being cleaned manually with thousands of litres of water before E4 systems were installed there.
Ajith Kumar S