Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-5, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
Solar Panel Cleaning System
Mr. Ashish Saini, Abhishek Nahar, Amit Yadav, Arnim, Dhruvash
Singh Shekhawat,
Mr. Ankit Vijayvargiya
Department of Electrical Engineering Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology Management
& Gramothan, Ramnagaria, Jagatpura, Jaipur (RAJ.)
Abstract: The solar PV modules are generally
employed in dusty environments which are the case
in tropical countries like India. The dust gets
accumulated on the front surface of the module and
blocks the incident light from the sun. It reduces the
power generation capacity of the module. The
power output reduces as much as by 50% if the
module is not cleaned for a month. In order to
regularly clean the dust, an automatic cleaning
system has been designed, which senses the dust on
the solar panel and also cleans the module
automatically. This automated system is
implemented using 8051 microcontroller which
controls the DC gear motor. The developed
software reduced the cleaning time for a 2x.83 feet
panel from eight minutes to two minutes by setting
a path on the surface of the PV panels, just a semi
random movement.
Keywords: PV panels, dc motors, microcontroller,
battery, Dust effects
INTRODUCTION
Photovoltaic panel production has increased
globally in response to the growing demand for
solar energy. This has been the result of an
increased awareness of the damage to the
environment that using fossil fuel sources has had
over the years. The rate of solar panel usage has
increased 370% since 2011.
There are many factors that affect PV power
efficiency, such as shadow, snow, high
temperatures, pollen, bird droppings, sea salt, dust
and dirt. The main factor that affects a PV panel’s
efficiency is dust, which can reduce its efficiency
by up to 50%, depending on the environment.
As the various Energy Group eager to explore the
possibility of using a more sustainable power
source. The possibility of installing many PV
panels into the area brought about the need to
consider how to increase long term efficiency by
the regular removal of debris from the PV panels.
In particular, dust which is made up of pollen, sea
salt and dirt particles.
Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
This project investigated the possibility of using the i7
cleaning robots (usually used for house cleaning) to
remove dust, sea salt and pollen from the surfaces of PV
panels. The limitation of this project was that the new
software was tested in simulated conditions, but has not
been used in actual environmental conditions.
PV power is one of the most efficient renewable sources
of energy. The use of PV power energy is growing
worldwide. In India it has been reported that the
installations of PV panel systems have increased
dramatically by 370% since 2011, which has also led to
a need to find a way to effectively keep the PV panels
clean (Sustainable Electricity Association India, 2013).
The current capacity of an installed PV system in India
is 8.2MW (Sustainable Electricity Association India,
2013). Lower cost and ease of use are the two key
drivers behind the growth of PV panels in India
(Sustainable Electricity Association India, 2013). In
other countries the situation is the same; for example,
the residential PV capacity installed in the United States
is projected to grow from 1.4 GW in 2010 to 10.6 GW
by 2016 (Clean Energy Prize, 2013).
The purpose of this project was to develop a means of
cleaning photovoltaic panels (PV panels) or solar panels
autonomously in order to maximize the efficiency and
energy output from these panels. Solar panels, being
used for a large commercial application such as solar
farms or on a smaller scale as in the case of residential
application, will inevitably get dirty simply due to the
environment in which it exists. The U.S. Department of
Energy figures have shown that panel efficiency may be
reduced by up to 7% from airborne dust particles alone.
Adding in other factors such as falling leaves and water
streaking, the efficiency of these panels can be further
reduced to as much as 15 – 30%. Some studies have
linked this reduction in output to as much as $10,000 of
lost value. In the case of a commercial installation, this
would be a significantly higher cost.
For this project, we narrowed our focus for more of a
smaller scale, as in the case of residential use. There
were several considerations taken into account when
designing this system. Firstly, in the case of residential
use, solar panels are usually placed on the roof to
receive the maximum amount of sunlight. As a result of
this, cleaning these solar panels would result in the
homeowner climbing up onto the roof to clean the
panels, which can be very hazardous. The other option
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-5, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

would be to hire a company to do it for them. accumulation of dust decreases the power production by
However, considering a typical home with 40 up to 50% (Adinoyi, 2013). Research done by an
panels, a rate of $5 to $10 and cleaning every three engineering student in Baghdad in 2010 found that the
months would result in an annual cost of $800 to transmittance decreased over a one-month period by
$1600. Furthermore, if we then estimate that the approximately 50% on average, due to the natural
panels will remain clean enough to maximize the deposition of dust on PV panels (Kasim, 2010). As the
output for 4 days after they are cleaned, then the growth of PV panel use increases, so does the need for
remaining 86 days until the next cleaning, the solar monitoring and cleaning the panels’ surfaces. The
panels will be operating at a reduced efficiency. frequency of cleaning the PV panels depends on the
This essentially means that the solar panels will environment of the solar installation. A company
only be operating at its maximum efficiency for suggests solar panels should be cleaned once to twice a
about 4% of the time. As a result of this, it only year in the India environment.
made sense that the system being designed should
be autonomous to prevent having to climb up onto
the roof and save money by allowing for the solar
panels to be cleaned often.
Another factor taken into consideration was that
solar panels tend to be placed in areas where there
is a lot of sunshine and as a consequence, very little
rain. Therefore, not only would it be unwise to
solely depend upon rainfall to clean the panels, but
water usage, for self-cleaning, in these areas may
be limited as well. For this reason, an electrostatic
cloth was used instead.
Also, there needed to be a way of determining
when to clean the solar panel since having it
cleaned all the time would be equally a waste of
energy. Additionally, we could not solely depend Fig 1: Effect of dust on solar panel efficiency
on there being a reduction of voltage from the solar
panels as a method of determining when it should The accumulation of dust on the surface of a
be cleaned since a cloudy day would also result in a photovoltaic module decreases the radiation reaching
reduction of voltage. the solar cell and produces losses in the generated
Finally, in the event of an emergency or system voltage and power. Dust not only reduces the radiation
malfunction, there needed to be a way of turning on the solar cell, but also changes the dependence on
off the system. Therefore a button was interfaced the angle of incidence of such radiation. According to
with the BS2 to provide a means of shutting off the the research, the daily energy loss along a year caused
system quickly. Also, as the servo motor has an by dust deposited on the surface of the PV module is
operating range between -10°C to 50°C, a digital around 4.4%. In long periods without rain, daily energy
thermometer was also used to determine when the losses can be higher than 20%. In addition, the
temperature in the environment was outside of this irradiance losses are not constant throughout the day
range. and are strongly dependent on the sunlight incident
angle and the ratio between diffuse and direct
I. EFFECT OF DUST ON SOLAR radiations. When studied as a function of solar time,
PANEL the irradiance losses are symmetric with respect noon,
where they reach the minimum value.
Solar power generation can be influenced by many
The PV module performance has been tested under the
factors. The major factors that reduce or impede the
deposition of different pollutants (red soil, ash, sand,
generation of power for the PV panels are;
calcium carbonate, and silica). According to the
shadows, snow, high temperatures, dust, dirt, bird
obtained results, a drop of PV module’s voltage and
droppings, pollen and sea salt. The environmental
output power is observed when dust particles are
factors affecting solar energy generation will be
deposited on the PV module depending on the mass
discussed below used to work in context with
accumulated, and the type of pollutant. Moreover,
similar objective for blind personals.
larger reduction occurs when the PV module’s
The power output generated by PV panels is known
temperature is increased. In addition to that, keeping
to suffer power efficiency losses over time due to
the PV modules clean and cool, results efficient system
accumulation of dust and other dirt. In the Middle
performance. Power generation in the solar panel with
East, India and Australia, PV power output is
dust and without dust with varying load resistance is
significantly affected by the accumulation of dust
determined experimentally.
on the surfaces of PV arrays. In Saudi Arabia, the

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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-5, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

II. METHODOLOGY memory to be reprogrammed in-system or by a

conventional non-volatile memory programmer. By
In this paper, the effects of accumulated dust on the combining a versatile 8-bit CPU with in-system
performance of the solar panels are investigated by programmable Flash on a monolithic chip, the
referring the results obtained by experimentation in Atmel AT89S52 is a powerful microcontroller
dusty atmosphere of different levels. Also, an auto which provides a highly-flexible and cost-effective
cleaning system is employed to work as the auto solution to many embedded control applications.
cleaner which is equipped on the tilted solar panel
is proposed. The design of the auto cleaning system
will have flexibility in order fix on different sizes
of flat solar panels. In accordance with the
dimensions of the tilted plate panel, the system
consists of brushes driven by DC-motors through a
threaded rod system. The movement of the brushes
is controlled by signal generated by a
microcontroller in accordance with the dust
sensor which produce a rotational motion which
is converted into linear motion through rod. The
electrical power which is needed to drive the DC-
motor is supplied from the battery. Following steps
are involved in the methodology,
a) Collecting and studying more extra details
regarding the effects of accumulated dust on
the flat solar panels.

b) Designing the basic prototype of the auto

cleaning system.
c) Choosing the proper microcontroller to control
the auto cleaning robot and sensor to sense the
amount of dust on the solar panel.
Fig 2: Pin diagram of controller
d) Designing the microcontroller's algorithm such
that the microcontroller can control the robot in Battery:
the right direction.
A nickel–metal hydride battery, abbreviated NiMH
III. WORKING OF SYSTEM or Ni–MH, is a type of rechargeable battery. The
In the automatic cleaning system, when the dust chemical reaction at the positive electrode is similar
accumulates on the solar panel, microprocessor to that of the nickel–cadmium cell (NiCd), with
sends a signal to actuate the system. One dc motor both using nickel oxide hydroxide (NiOOH).
associated with battery start rotating the brush and However, the negative electrodes use a hydrogen-
the other one start rotating the threaded rod. This absorbing alloy instead of cadmium. A NiMH
vertical movement of brush cleans the panels. battery can have two to three times the capacity of
Movement of rod is such that it moves brush 1 inch an equivalent size NiCd, and its energy density can
in ten revolutions. If temperature of panel is above approach that of a lithium-ion battery.
the pickup value, it will trigger the cleaning system
to clean and cool the PV panels.
Hardware used in our project is microcontroller,
DC motors, battery and equipment’s used for
movement of brush.

8 Bit Microcontroller Modules:

The AT89S52 is a low-power, high-performance

CMOS 8-bit microcontroller with 8K bytes of in-
system programmable Flash memory. The device is
manufactured using Atmel’s high-density non-
volatile memory technology and is compatible with
the industry-standard 80C51 instruction set and
pinout. The on-chip Flash allows the program Fig 3: Specifications of battery

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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-5, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
A7800 Series Voltage Regulator:
This series of fixed-voltage integrated-circuit
voltage regulators is designed for a wide range of
applications. These applications include on-card
regulation for elimination of noise and distribution
problems associated with single-point regulation.
Each of these regulators can deliver up to 1.5 A of
output current. The internal current-limiting and
thermal-shutdown features of these regulators
essentially make them immune to overload. In
addition to use as fixed-voltage regulators, these
devices can be used with external components to
obtain adjustable output voltages and currents, and
also can be used as the power-pass element in
precision regulators.
Circuit Diagram:
 
 
Fig 4: Circuit Diagram of Cleaning System
IV. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
The presented system is designed and configured
for practical use. The system is able to handle
cleaning and cooling. The system will respond to
each state according to a specific program which is
coded and installed in the microcontroller.
The portability is an important parameter of the
system. The system which can be worn and used by
the subject for prolonged time is considered as a
portable system; otherwise it is regarded as non-
portable. The easiness of the system usage is
considered as another parameter. An easy to use
device is actually easy to get to and an easy to
Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
function. Finally the non-invasive utilization of the
system is considered as a property of the system.
PV EFFICIENCY:
Efficiency in photovoltaic solar panels is measured
by the ability of a panel to convert sunlight into
usable energy for human consumption.
Maximum efficiency= {(max power output)/
(incident radiation flux*area of collector)}*100
Now that you have your Pmax (400W), ES,
(1000W/m2), and Ac (2.79 m2), you can plug your
numbers into the efficiency equation where all units
will cancel out and then multiply the value by
100% to give you your efficiency percentage of
14.3%.
ADVANTAGES:
 Low design time.
Low production cost.
 This system is applicable for both the
indoor and outdoor environment.
 Setting the destination is very easy.
 It is dynamic system.
 Less space.
 Low power consumption.
Good for areas with ready access to water.
 Improves the effectiveness of the PV
panels after being washed by almost 30-
40%.
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE
SCOPE
With rising implementation of photovoltaic arrays,
a new method of cleaning and inspection is
necessary. Complete cleaning is especially
important since the obstruction of a single panel
with debris affects the energy generation for the
entire array. It is extremely important that all cells
operate at peak efficiency since they are connected
in series.
Advances in energy technology should be
accompanied by advances for their support,
maintenance and inspection devices This paper
presented the first ever robotized system for
cleaning photovoltaic panel arrays at large scale
solar parks. The PV Cleaner Robot V1.0 is
composed of two motorized trolleys (which provide
horizontal motion) and a cleaning head driven by a
belt and pulley system (for vertical motion). The
cleaning head is designed to clean while traveling
both upwards and downward.
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-5, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
It is made up of two sets of sprayers to apply the
cleaning solution, two rotating cylindrical brushes
to scrub the photovoltaic panels, and a scraper to
remove the dirty solution and direct it away from
the panels that have already been cleaned. The
device developed significantly reduces the number
of workers needed to clean arrays using limited
resources and taking less time. Further
development will optimize the system to be
smaller, lighter, easier to assemble in higher
volume and more user-friendly. But the next focus
will be inclusion of auto-inspection,
communication, and self-diagnostic features to
diversify the robot’s functionality. The installation
of a thermal camera module that will allow for
inspection of the panels since the cleaning head is
in direct contact with every individual panel. Cold
spots just under the glass surface will indicate a
section of panel that remains un-cleaned and will
prompt the cleaner to make another pass if needed.
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[5]. OSC Energy Inc., Solar Wash, 7
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