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A Low-Cost Autonomous Cleaning System for Photovoltaic Arrays

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Emerging Trends in Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering (ELECOM 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 416))

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Abstract

In recent years, installation of photovoltaic arrays has increased significantly worldwide driven by attractive incentives and reduced prices. However, the efficiency of the photovoltaic panels is negatively impacted by deposits of dust and dirt on their surface. Manual cleaning is highly labor-intensive, costly and uses excessive amounts of water. To address these shortcomings, an autonomous system is proposed to clean photovoltaic panels. It is based on two interconnected motorized structures that move along the surface of the PV panels to ensure that all sections are cleaned. A sensor network provides feedback on various aspects of the cleaning process. Tests showed that the proposed system can result in a gain of about 22% in daily average power output after three weeks of operation compared to a normal photovoltaic system.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius

    Mohammad Fardeen Islam, Vishwamitra Oree & Anshu Prakash Murdan

Authors
  1. Mohammad Fardeen Islam
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  2. Vishwamitra Oree
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  3. Anshu Prakash Murdan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vishwamitra Oree .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ACSE, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Peter Fleming

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

    Nalinaksh Vyas

  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

    Saeid Sanei

  4. Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Kalyanmoy Deb

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Islam, M.F., Oree, V., Murdan, A.P. (2017). A Low-Cost Autonomous Cleaning System for Photovoltaic Arrays. In: Fleming, P., Vyas, N., Sanei, S., Deb, K. (eds) Emerging Trends in Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering. ELECOM 2016. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 416. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52171-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52171-8_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52170-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52171-8

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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