Design Optimization, Automation and Testing Analysis of Dust Cleaning Mechanism for Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant

Abstract

Dust accumulation (also known as soiling) on the surface of solar panels decreases the amount of sunlight reaching the solar photovoltaic panels, and thus, the efficiency of the solar panel is severely affected. To harness their designed capacity to its fullest, they need to be cleaned periodically, usually with water. Due to water scarcity in some areas, cleaning becomes difficult, challenging, and subsequently costly. Nowadays, these factors, dust and dirt, have become crucial for research since they have a significant effect on conversion efficiency. If proper cleaning mechanisms are used, then it may show about 25% improvement in output energy or about 15–20% enhancement in conversion efficiency. Hence, rigorous study of solar panel automated cleaning mechanism is vital. The paper reveals the study of dust with its accumulation, design optimization, and testing of dust cleaning mechanism. The optimization is done by considering different materials and their properties. The optimization helps to improve the performance by considering the parameters like strength, stiffness, durability, availability. The cleaning mechanism is operated by 12 V DC motors with the help of rack and pinion mechanism. The Arduino board microcontroller is used for the automation purpose with motor drivers and limit switches. The absolute efficiency with dust and without dust is considered for performance comparison of the mechanism. The trial of designed and developed mechanism is conducted on two panels of 250 W each of polycrystalline silicon solar panel, and it is found that the power generated by clean panel is 2.1 kWh, while the power generated by dusty panel is 1.59 kWh. The increase of power production by cleaning mechanism is 450 Wh while the power required to cleaning mechanism is 3.198 Wh.