Dust storms

[marchesarosa]

Imagine the effect of this on solar panels!



Dust storm hits Phoenix 5th July.
twitpic.com/5lzzac

Have the EU proposals for a giant solar array in the Sahara made provision for maintaining the panels free of sand and dust?


What impact on generation does heavy dust on the panels have?

[speakertoanimals]

Well, clean it is one obvious response!

And the Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit did manage an impressive set of missions on mars, despite all the dust!

turns out the chemists are ahead of the game here, and have self-cleaning coatings:

eponline.com/articles/2010/08/23/coating-will-keep-dust-from-solar-panels-increase-efficiency.aspx

Anyway, why should anyone assume that the engineers working on this stuff are too DAFT to think about the effects of dirt, grime and dust? Fairly bloody obvious, frankly.

something that astronomers have to consider as well -- seem to have CO2 cleaning systems for some telescopes, although that wasn't sufficient in this case where they had an unexpected spillage onto the mirror:

www.spacenewsfeed.co.uk/index.php/astronomy/8858-serious-hardware-incident-interrupts-operation-of-subaru-telescope

[marchesarosa]

Here's a view of the very clever non-maintenance carried out by some very clever bods who were happy to pocket the subsidies.

[marchesarosa]

And here's a photo of some solar roof panels covered in dust.

Not quite so easy to clean panels on the roof. Do you have to pay specialist panel cleaners?
It costs me £20 a time for my window cleaner to clean the windows on my 4-storey house using
a VERY long ladder

How much extra to clamber around on the roof?

[speakertoanimals]

Here's a view of the very clever non-maintenance carried out by some very clever bods who were happy to pocket the subsidies.

1) I'm not convinced that that vegetation will have that much effect on the panels, the shadows cast aren't extensive.

2) weedkiller. job done.

Is this REALLY a decent argument, assuming that solar energy is a dud because NO ONe has considered the problem of dust on the panels/need for cleaning? Indeed, even on YouTube you can find examples of people cleaning their panels, plus MORE links to the development of 'self-cleaning' coatings for such panels.

Indeed, another google said:

1) there are companies who clean domestic solar panel installations
2) some panels can be fitted with cleaning systems when installed
3) solar-panel cleaning robots
4) The special coatings I've mentioned twice now

and so on. It's just another routine maintainance task.

[principled]

STA
You're right that self cleaning glass has been around for years, developed by the British company Pilkington I'm happy to say.
The issue, however, with this self-cleaning glass is that it does require rain to wash away the organic matter loosened by the action of UV. So desert applications (which must be the optimum location in terms of maximum annual UV input) could well have a large layer of dust forming, which will reduce power output.
See: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890406000562 (I can only get the abstract, but a 17% reduction is mentioned).

Even if cleaning systems are fitted, this would require a water infrastructure, pumps etc., which in turn will require maintenance. Whilst large feed-in tariffs are available that cost may be able to be absorbed, but such subsidies are not guaranteed.
See:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Spain#Subsidy_reductions

In short, money for capital projects is more easily obtained than that for maintenance. The former being considered an investment, the latter an on-cost.

P
PS: The British may have invented self-cleaning glass. But the Spaniards have invented Solar Panels that work at night.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-12/group-calls-for-probe-on-report-of-payment-for-solar-power-output-at-night.html

[marchesarosa]

Isn't this EU project in North Africa a bit neo-colonialist?

What about African solar power for the Africans? After all, they need it more than we do.

[speakertoanimals]

The coating I was referring to was some clever electrically activated one, that DIDN'T require rain to wash it clean, just had to use some of the electrical power that was being generated anyway.

hence suitable for use in areas without significant rain?

Ah,, found it! Precisely that case -- no rain in deserts, lots of dust, who's gonna clean the panels?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11057771

and a nice spin-off from NASA, who obviously are interested in keeping the panels of Mars Rovers clean. Although you have to admit Spirit and Opportunity did BLOODY well without it -- it was the getting bogged down in soft stuff and being stuck on a rock that did for Spirit, along with the loss in power. But Opportunity is still going!

[principled]

STA:
Good find.

Self-cleaning technology developed for lunar and Mars missions could be used to keep terrestrial solar panels dust free...They expect the technology to be commercially available within one year.

Not yet commercially available. No costings. I'll hang on to see what happens if you don't mind. Remember...there's many a slip betwixt cup and lip!
P
PS: Go into any manufacturer and you'll find shelves full of patents and designs that seem promising, but they never move from small scale experimental units to full scale production because production costs outweigh the benefits.
Remember Tomorrow's World?