A group of specialists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has proposed a new way to clean the surface of solar panels from dust.
This method does not require water at all, which is important because the dust layer gradually reduces the current source’s power.
The advantages of renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly recognized by humanity. The number of solar farms is growing in the world – these are huge fields consisting of solar panels.
The largest of them, Solar Star, consists of 1.7 million panels and is located in the lifeless deserts of California, covering almost 1300 hectares.
However, solar panels have a weak point. In hot countries, where their use is most effective, they quickly become dust-covered.
And after a month, the power of such a panel sometimes drops by 40% due to dust. Typically, such farms are cleaned by spraying giant reserves of water, all over the world, they spend 38 billion liters a year on this!
Now, the US scientists turned to the effect of static electricity to propose dry brushing, writes the journal Science Advances. The electrode is placed over the panel, charging the dust particles and throwing them off the panels.