Solar Panel Surface Research Articles

A Solar Panel Cleaning Robot Design and Application

Solar energy, which is one of the renewable energy sources, has an important role in meeting the increasing electrical energy demand of our globe. In recent years, many countries have established their energy policies based on solar energy, and researchers have been working on solar panel efficiency, maximum energy extraction from the sun, control and power electronics. The energy extracting from the sun is converted into electrical energy via solar panels. To extract continuously maximum energy level from the sun reduces installation costs and makes it easier to meet the demanded peak electrical power. Physical conditions such as muddy rain, snow and dusting place between the solar panel and the sun. This situation results the reduced electrical power extraction level which can be technically produced with clean solar panel surface. Therefore, it is also very important to keep the solar panels clean as well as the maximum power point tracking devices. In this study, a solar panel cleaning robot (SPCR) has been designed and tested in real time. The designed dual-motor and crawler robot moves horizontally and the cleaning brush runs on the vertical axis. In addition, the length of the solar panel array can be detected by position switches to keep the SPCR in desired working area.

Evaluating a Self-Charging Electrostatic Dust Shield for Solar Cell applications in Baghdad Outdoor Weather

Introduction: It is well known that the biggest problem facing the utilizing of solar cell Panels in Baghdad is the unpredictable dusty weather through the days of year. This big problem is not easy to overcome due to the frequent dust accumulations and the high cost of cleaning and other maintenance problems. Dust problems are increasing due to global warming. In Baghdad city, where solar radiation is intense and available almost throughout the year, Deposition of dust on the panels could severely minimize solar-to power output efficiency. There are many methods for dust removing from surfaces like the natural dust removal of wind, mechanical dust removing, super-hydrophobic on solar panel surface, and the electrostatic method which is adopted in this work. The dust particles will be charged statistically by rolling on the surface of the solar panels they will have the same electric charge and the electrostatic forces between them are repulsion. Hence, the dust particles will float away from the solar panels. Materials and Methods: A self-charging transparent conductive glass is prepared by spraying a thin film (141 nm thickness) of a Tin dioxide (SnO2) solution on a glass substrate (12x12 cm2). The dust shield is connected to an electronic charging circuit. The shield is located on the top of a silicon solar cell. The novel idea is that the shield is electrically supplied by the solar cell itself whereas D.C. current from the solar cell itself is used to charge the conductive glass, which is located on the top surface of the cell. Results and Discussion: A test was done for dust removing from a Silicon solar cell by electrostatic repulsion method, considering matching the spectral response region of the Siliconsolar cells with the film transmittance spectral region (400 -700 nm). The transmittance value is between (92 – 95)% and results are compared withan identical reference solar cell. Results show a good response as the calculated clearing factor value increases due to the cell efficiency increment.Also, the clearing factor is discussed as a function of outdoor temperature to show a direct proportionality, while the environmental humidity showed an inverse proportionality. Conclusions: A self-cleaning method for a solar cell is successfully introduced via a conductive glass. tests were carried outdoor in Baghdad city. Results showed that there is a direct proportionality between both: the clearing factor and the efficiency gain with the ambient temperature. The ambient humidity showed indirect proportionality with system efficiency (clearing factor and efficiency gain show reduction as the humidity percentage increases).

Solar Panel Cleaning Device

Dust and dirt particles which fall on solar panel decreases the output of solar panel. Hence the cleaning of solar panel is one of the biggest challenge of engineering. In this paper the problem is discussed and a device for cleaning the surface of solar panel is disclosed. The device is portable in nature which is controlled by using a microcontroller and a feedback from a sensor for proper movement over the surface of solar panel. Initial test of the prototype device show some great result.

REAL TIME CLOCK SEBAGAI TRACKING SINAR MATAHARI PADA SOLAR CELL BERBASIS MIKROKONTROLER UNTUK LAMPU TAMA

One of the new and renewable energy is the utilization of sunlight into electricity. which can be used to be converted into electrical energy using solar panels. The installation of solar panels installed for garden lights so far is often still placed in a static (silent) position at an angle of 90⁰, while the sun moves from sunrise to sunset. Because it will cause maximum energy absorption in solar panels which are placed in a static position only at 12:00. To overcome this problem a system is needed to track the position of the sun so that it is always perpendicular to the surface of the solar panel. Design and build garden lights with a solar light tracking system on a microcontroller-based solar panel will later be made to move because it follows the direction of the sun's movement every hour, from rising to setting. This tool will detect the time setting inputted by Real Time Clock (RTC) which is then processed by a microcontroller to drive a servo motor that functions as a solar panel drive machine so that the position of the solar panel will always be perpendicular to the sun. throughout the day and the absorption of energy in solar panels will be more leverage. From the results of tests that have been done, the increase in the voltage of solar panels using a tracking system compared to solar panels without using a tracking system is 7.85%.

Removal of Dust from the Solar Panel Surface using Mechanical Vibrator

Soiling and its effect on the performance of solar modules are generally of high concern for regions with a high deposition of dust and low frequency and less intensity of rainfall. The procedure of removing dust using traditional methods is capital and labour intensive. Additionally, most of the cleaning methods consumed power from the energy produced by the solar system. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of vibration magnitude on the dust removal index of solar panel. In this work, wind energy was transformed into mechanical energy i.e. vibration. The mechanical vibrator attached to a panel produced harmonic excitation force to overcome the adhesive force between the dust particles and the surface of the solar panel. The generated vibration force has a linear relationship with the air velocity. This new designed and fabricated system was able to remove 3.5 gram of dust out of 5 grams on the panel with a vibration force of 3.128 N at a tilt angle of 15°. The new system has effectively proven that wind energy if being converted into vibration force can be used for dust removal from the solar panel surface.

Exergo-economic analyses of two building integrated energy systems using an exergy diagram

This paper tackles the exergo-economic assessment of two integrated energy systems that allow the building heating demand to be achieved; a solar assisted heat pump using ice storage and an ambient air heat pump with photovoltaic panels. These systems are firstly described and their performance is discussed for various surfaces of solar collectors and photovoltaic panels. To this purpose, the total electrical energy consumption and the total cost are estimated while the total exergy destruction is divided according to renewable and non-renewable energy flows. This latter, which is really paid by the user, then serves as the exergy performance indicator. The ambient air heat pump with photovoltaic panels is found as the optimal solution from energy and economic perspectives while the solar assisted heat pump using ice storage provides the best exergy performance. To help analyze results, the system performance is illustrated by using an exergy diagram, where energy terms are shown on the abscise axis and energy quality factors are on the ordinate axis. This 2-D graphical representation, which can consider the results from dynamic analyses, helps understand the system operation and performance, and reveals the sources (components), the reasons (energy loss and/or energy potential factor degradation) and the nature (renewable, non-renewable flows) of irreversibility.

MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF AEROSOLS IN SOLAR PANELS

The continuous demands for electricity, the fulfillment of standards in relevance with European directives have fostered Kosovo to think seriously about the use of alternative energies. The study of this study presents the effect of aerosols on the potential of solar panels in the production of electricity from solar energy. Changing the solar radiation that comes to the ground during unclear clean days is a good indicator concerning the efficiency of energy conversion. Assessing the level of concentration in aerosol concentrations from sunlight into the atmosphere is done by looking at the solar energy in the time unit and in the surface unit after the last rain when aerosol smog’s are present at this time. This paper is primarily focused to scrutinize the impact of climate conditions on the general pollution on the surface of solar panels, the efficient use of solar energy with mathematical modeling, the geographic possibilities of installing solar plants without any other impact of CO2 and aerosol smog’s, which can contribute sensitive to the security of power supply and solar thermal energy in an energy system for certain localities. Consequently, in this research we have come up to a conclusion that with the fall of rain the concentration of aerosol present at the surface of the solar panels are diminished at a large extent and the days after rain there is witnessed an increase in concentration of polluting particles which leads to reducing the efficiency of the sun's rays coming to the surface of solar panels.

Analytic and Monte-Carlo studies of the effect of dust accumulation on photovoltaics

Soiling or dust accumulation on the surface of solar panels blocks or reduces the sunlight which is converted into electric energy. It is considered one of the major causes of energy loss of solar panels, especially in desert environments. Here, we present an analytical model and Monte-Carlo simulation on how the dust accumulation affects the transmittance of sunlight and the photovoltaic performance. Using the Lambert-Beer-Bouguer law, it is shown that the transmittance of the light is reduced exponentially as a function of the area dust density. The mass extinction coefficients explain that finer dusts give rise to more reduction in transmittance for given area dust density. The Monte-Carlo simulation shows that the reduction in transmittance fluctuates more for larger particles. We calculate the dependence of the transmittance of light on two particle-size distributions: the normal and log normal distributions.

Enhancement the Efficiency of Solar PV by Increasing Rate of Heat Transfer

As the future progresses, many companies and industries are striving to achieve a “greener” approach to energy production by using solar energy. Solar panels that use PV cells (semiconductor devices used to convert light into electrical energy) are popular for converting solar power into electricity. One of the problems in using PV cells to extract energy from sunlight is the temperature effect on PV cells. As the solar panel is heated, the conversion efficiency of light to electrical energy is diminished. Because solar panels can be expensive, it is important to be able to extract as much energy as possible. The proposes cooling methods for the panel in order to achieve optimum efficiency. To achieve this, various cooling methods have been proposed. A bare solar panel with no air velocity was used as a base model. This was tested and compared to bare solar panels cooled by heat sinks, in the form of extended surfaces such as plate fins that can be mounted on the back surface of solar panels. Results showed that the heat sinks were only marginally effective; they resulted in a steady-state temperature of only a few degrees less than a solar panel without a heat sink. Due to these results, it is proposed that pump cooling would be far more beneficial. With the correctly sized pump, the temperature can be made to closely match any desired value.

Performance Improvement Optimisation of a Photovoltaic System located at the Tropical Climate using Water-Film Cooling Method

The temperature rise of solar panels can cause significant reduction in the energy generation especially for the countries located in tropical climate region. It is more effective to use water-film for cooling the front surface of solar panels, but the energy consumption of the water-cooled photovoltaic system (WCPV) needs to be reduced to obtain a higher net energy gain. In this study, a discrete water-supply water-cooling system (D-WCPV) has been proposed to reduce the energy consumption of the water pump and to improve the performance of a retrofit or building integrated photovoltaic system through reduction of the panel temperature. The discrete mechanism utilises a relay to switch on the power supply of the water pump whenever the temperature of the solar panel has reached the threshold of 45 °C. It is found that minimum flow rate for the D-WCPV is 8 L/min to form a full coverage of water on the surface of the solar panel for providing an uniform cooling effect and hence providing a better performance improvement. A comparison has also been made for the continuous water-supply water-cooling system (C-WCPV) and D-WCPV. D-WCPV has two advantages over C-WCPV as follows: 1) the energy consumption of the water pump operating at flow rate of 8 L/min has been reduced by 86.7% from 0.057 kWh/h to 0.0076 kWh/h and (2) the net energy gain (NEG) of the system at solar irradiation ranging from 806 Wh/m2 to 950 Wh/m2 has been increased by 80.2% from 5.5% to 10.0%.

A new intelligent system design for cleaning the photovoltaic solar panel surface

Nowadays electricity is generated by solar energy through photovoltaic solar cells and the system efficiency developed in this direction is being investigated. The efficiency of the photovoltaic panels used to transform solar energy into electricity is utmost importance. Dusting, equipment which are used for photovoltaic systems (DC conductors, inverter, panel interior design, etc.), shadowing, amount of radiation and many other factors affect to the efficiency of photovoltaic panels. Some of these are resolved in the installation of the system, while others are changed over time. For a good efficiency of the system during operation, at bottom, photovoltaic panel surface must be kept clean and so it can be absorb more effective solar radiation. The surface cleaning is empiric in many studies which manual or automatic; it can actually be by an intelligent system. In this study, an intelligent cleaning system based on fuzzy logic with arduino microcontroller was designed to automatically clean the photovoltaic panel surfaces. Thanks to the membership functions of the fuzzy logic as temperature, shadowing, dusting and output current of the panel, the designed system is enabled to operate efficiently. Two membership functions of each of these input functions have been determined. Detailed information about the membership functions of the inputs of the system is given in the system design section. These membership functions decide whether the system will be activated or not. The design purpose is to minimize the efficiency losses due to dusting and dirt on the panel surface and to allow for maximum electrical energy production. As a result, without waiting for the cleaning period, the loss of energy production is eliminated and the efficiency was increased by 15-20 percent.

Measurement of Equivalent BRDF on the Surface of Solar Panel with Periodic Structure

The surface of a complex material with a periodic structure is equivalent to the surface of a uniform material, and the measurement and data processing methods for the equivalent optical BRDF of a solar panel based on a large-scale spot are proposed. Based on a solar simulator, high-intensity light illuminometer, low-intensity light illuminometer and precise rotary platform, the BRDF automatic measurement platform is built. Spot size optimization and a measurement radius optimization method are proposed. The measurement results show that the BRDF of the solar panel has specular reflection characteristics, but that it still differs from the solar cell in the half width of the BRDF curve. Measurement error analysis is performed for the measurement process; its value is 6.74%. The measurement results can be used to improve the understanding of the optical reflection characteristics of the solar panel. Meanwhile, the method can also be used to measure and characterize the coatings of heat insulation material and scattering coating. The measurement data also has practical reference value for evaluations of improvements of the light absorption of the surface functional material. Finally, it can be used to simulate the target image scene.

Electrostatic cleaning equipment for dust removal from soiled solar panels

Electrostatic cleaning equipment has been developed to remove dust from the surface of soiled solar panels. When a high AC voltage is applied to the parallel screen electrodes placed on a solar panel, the resultant electrostatic force acts on the particles near the electrodes. The reciprocatory motion of the particles between the electrodes arises due to the alternating electrostatic force, where some particles pass through the openings of the upper screen electrode and fall downward along the inclined panel owing to the gravitational force. We demonstrated how dust is removed efficiently from the panel surface. High cleaning performance is realized by the application of low frequency high voltage, and high inclination of the panel and low initial dust loading are preferable. Although residual dust accumulates after repeated cleaning operations, the amount of accumulated dust is much smaller than that without cleaning. The power consumption of this system is negligibly low. This technology is expected to significantly increase the efficiency of mega solar power plants constructed in deserts.

Turbulent airflow dust particle removal from solar panel surface: Analysis and experiment

Dust particles deposited on a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel surface may influence its performance depending on the particle composition, size and origin. In this context, the mechanics of fine particle adhesion on solar panel surface was analyzed and the simulation and experiment on dust removal from solar panel surface by turbulent airflow were conducted. Firstly, a particle adhesion model on the solar panel surface in dry and wet conditions and a particle detachment model in turbulent flows were established. The critical shear velocity of airflow to remove the particles was calculated based on Monte Carlo method. Then, a multi-stage expansion nozzle was designed which had multiple expansion cavities in series. The flow field inside the nozzle was simulated in FLUENT to obtain the outlet airflow velocity. Finally, the dust removal system for solar panel was validated experimentally, and its feasibility was demonstrated.

Electric Power Optimizing Of Solar Panel SystemThrough Solar Tracking Implementation; A Case Study in Pekanbaru

Observations and measurements have been conducted towards a solar panel electric power output that is utilized by a solar tracking system. The electrical power output depends on the position of the sun and time and the direction of the panel surface against the angle of the incident light. For power optimization, the solar panel surface should always be directed perpendicular to the direction of the sunlight falling to the surface of the panel. The application of the solar tracking system controlled by a micro controller gives the expected results. The electrical power output of a static solar panel mounted on a fixed position becomes the benchmark of the output electric power value in this study. The measurement results of the electric power output of the solar panel with sun tracking system shows a significant increase in sunny weather conditions.The average increase of that is about 57.3%.Keywords: LDR, micro controller, optimal power output, performance improvment, sun tracking,

A Design of a Drone for Cleaning Polluted Areas on the Surface of Solar Panels using a 3-D SLAM Technique

A Design of a Drone for Cleaning Polluted Areas on the Surface of Solar Panels using a 3-D SLAM Technique

Maximum Power Point Tracking Approach Based on Temperature for PV Surface Using PSPICE Program

This paper studies the effect of PV surface Temperature on PV panel output characteristics. Circuit simulator PSPICE is used to compose PV panel model at 75W, 4.8A and 21V. The behavior of PV model under varying conditions (solar insolation, temperature and PV panel surface temperature) is studied. The ABM feature of PSPICE is used to include the above parameters in PV PSPICE model and produced temperature dependent voltage. This voltage is converted to current with galvanic insulation by element Gploy with gain 0.8. This model defined as a hierarchal block in PSPICE library and could be called as individual source for any applications. The effect of PV surface temperature on its I-V curves specially the positions of the MPP, is used to keep track of the MPP. Therefore, DC-DC boost converter was used to achieve this purpose. Boost converter was raised a PV panel voltage from 17V to 34V (for all variation of PV surface temperature 280K to 360K) also output current 4.4A for switching frequency 10kHz are selected.

Выбор параметров и анализ эффективности применения систем слежения за Солнцем

Актуальность. Эффективным способом повышения производительности фотоэлектрических станций является применение систем слежения за положением Солнца. Ярко-выраженная зависимость величины солнечного излучения, поступающего на приемную поверхность солнечных батарей, от географического положения электростанции и климатических условий обуславливает значительные различия в характеристиках солнечной радиации для разных регионов России. Соответственно, существенно могут различаться и параметры следящих систем, обеспечивающих максимальную производительность солнечной электростанции. Опыт практического применения солнечных трекеров в России небольшой, и актуальной является задача выбора параметров следящей системы, обеспечивающих максимальную технико-экономическую эффективность фотоэлектрической станции в заданном районе ее эксплуатации. Цель исследования: выбор параметров и оценка эффективности применения солнечных систем слежения в высоких северных широтах Методы исследования: математическое и компьютерное моделирование с использованием программной среды MatLab/Simulink. Результаты. Рассмотрена классификация и основные компоненты солнечных следящих систем, выполнен анализ их основных технических характеристик. Даны рекомендации по выбору параметров следящих систем для эксплуатации в высоких северных широтах. Разработана имитационная модель фотоэлектрической станции с системой слежения за положением Солнца, обеспечивающая моделирование ее энергетических характеристик с учетом реальных условий эксплуатации. Рассмотрен практический пример выбора параметров и оценки эффективности применения солнечных систем слежения для фотоэлектрической станции, территориально расположенной в г. Томске.

Recent developments in multifunctional coatings for solar panel applications: A review

Conventional resources of energy production by burning fossil fuels are detrimental to the earth's atmosphere leading to serious problems such as global warming and acid rain. As a result, renewable and green energy technologies have gained lot of attention in the recent years. In particular, the improvement of solar panel efficiency has grabbed a significant domain of researchers’ interest since sun is the year-round available source of energy that can be efficiently utilized for energy generation. However, a significant part of the incident solar energy is being lost due to the reflection at the air/glass interface as well as the accumulation of dusts on the modules. Hence, the surface morphology and characteristics of solar panel surfaces have recently been enhanced using multifunctional thin films or coatings in order to improve their self-cleaning, anti-reflection, anti-fogging and energy transmittance properties of the coated solar panels. A wide range of materials and methods have been employed in fabrication of solar panel coatings including superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic and photoactive coating surfaces.In this review, the current state of fabrication of solar panel coatings and their properties, including surface morphology, wettability, electrical conductivity and light transparency characteristics, are discussed. The review starts with discussing the fundamental concept of self-cleaning (i.e., superhydrophobicity/superhydrophilicity) and antireflective (i.e., transparency) properties followed by presenting a review of the recent methods and technologies used in manufacturing of superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic, photoactive and transparent thin films used in solar panel coatings. More importantly, the recent development on the fabrication and application of self-cleaning and dust-repellent antireflective coatings in solar modules have been discussed. Lastly, recent reports on advanced coatings with hybrid functionalities such as self-healing and antimicrobial activity are presented.

Roof-Inhabiting Cousins of Rock-Inhabiting Fungi: Novel Melanized Microcolonial Fungal Species from Photocatalytically Reactive Subaerial Surfaces.

Subaerial biofilms (SAB) are an important factor in weathering, biofouling, and biodeterioration of bare rocks, building materials, and solar panel surfaces. The realm of SAB is continually widened by modern materials, and the settlers on these exposed solid surfaces always include melanized, stress-tolerant microcolonial ascomycetes. After their first discovery on desert rock surfaces, these melanized chaetothyrialean and dothidealean ascomycetes have been found on Mediterranean monuments after biocidal treatments, Antarctic rocks and solar panels. New man-made modifications of surfaces (e.g., treatment with biocides or photocatalytically active layers) accommodate the exceptional stress-tolerance of microcolonial fungi and thus further select for this well-protected ecological group. Melanized fungal strains were isolated from a microbial community that developed on highly photocatalytic roof tiles after a long-term environmental exposure in a maritime-influenced region in northwestern Germany. Four of the isolated strains are described here as a novel species, Constantinomyces oldenburgensis, based on multilocus ITS, LSU, RPB2 gene phylogeny. Their closest relative is a still-unnamed rock-inhabiting strain TRN431, here described as C. patonensis. Both species cluster in Capnodiales, among typical melanized microcolonial rock fungi from different stress habitats, including Antarctica. These novel strains flourish in hostile conditions of highly oxidizing material surfaces, and shall be used in reference procedures in material testing.