Technological Environment Overview, Free Essay about Solar Industry

It is undeniable that the solar industry would be the most effective industry in energy in the past decade without the development of different ways of maintaining solar panels. One important factor to consider that depicts the importance of different ways of maintaining solar panels is the exposure of the panel to different environmental conditions. As such, solar panels that harvest energy from sunlight have to be in direct view of the sunlight to store as much energy as possible (Mondal & Bansal, 2015). The exposure makes the panes susceptible to many environmental conditions. For instance, in sub-Sahara, there are many solar panels installed due to the exposure of the desert area too much sunlight. However, this comes at the expense of exposure to a huge amount of sand from the desert, which can be transported, by strong winds and sandstorms to settle upon the solar panels. The sands inhibit the proper functioning of the solar panels bringing upon significant challenges that cause them to become ineffective in the long-term.

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However, innovation has enabled the creation of different effective techniques that have for long been used to clean solar panels. The solar panel industry has since become a lucrative industry, which acts as a precursor to the proper operations of the solar energy industry. However, these different methods of cleaning face significant challenges that are negatively affecting the lifespan and effectiveness of solar panels (Mondal & Bansal, 2015). The growth of the solar energy industry is dependent upon the proper functioning of solar panels which can only be attained through finding appropriate ways to maintain the proper functioning state of solar panels.

This technological and environmental overview is bound to focus on the brief history of solar panel cleaning methods from the beginning of the existence to the current day and age. The focus is on the development of the solar panel cleaning methods from the former methods to the most recent innovative methods that are widely used in the solar energy industry. The environmental overview will include a keen look at the most widely used methods of cleaning solar panels and the most recent proposed technological method with a purpose to illustrate the significant improvement that has taken place through time. Solar panel cleaning methods have become detrimental to the future of the solar energy industry. If the world is to depend on more solar energy as a substitute source of clean energy, they should also consider the adaption of more innovative and effective ways that provides efficient use of resources and is cost-effective in the long-term (Mondal & Bansal, 2015).

Solar Panel Cleaning History

Over time the development of solar panel cleaning solutions has been the focus of the scientists involved in the solar energy industry. The oldest methods included the use of water to clean the surface of the solar panels from time to time. However, through time, it was discovered that the methods of using water were costly in different ways. First, a lot of water was needed for the cleaning to be done in a proper manner. This created a significant challenge of ensuring enough water is available for every cleaning exercise (Park et al., 2011) Secondly, the installation and use of the equipment used for cleaning the solar panels using water were not flexible to clean in one sweep. Instead, there was a need for individuals to man the cleaning tools to ensure proper cleaning is done in the shortest time possible. This necessitated the employment and training of solar panel cleaning personnel. The recurring costs of cleaning became more and more necessitating the development of another method of cleaning. Next was the use of the compressed air system. This method was specifically effective as it enabled the use of an inexhaustible amount of resources that was air (Syafiq et al., 2018). However, it became disadvantageous in that it used electricity as fuel. Apart from the high electricity consumption, the compressed air system was disadvantageous because it needed trained and experienced personnel to handle the equipment. These rather traditional methods of cleaning solar panels were however overthrown by more advanced and innovative cleaning equipment that are automated and incurred low costs of operation in the long term (Saidan et al., 2016). However much the more advanced systems were beneficial and showed significant improvement compared to the former equipment used, they still have significant challenges that can be solved by adapting to a robotic solar panel cleaning equipment.

Automated Solar Panel Cleaning Equipment

There is major alternative solar panel cleaning equipment that uses automated systems, which provide the aspect of automation reducing the need to be physically operated by personnel. Continued advancement of technology and innovation has enabled the creation of automated systems over time which includes systems that wash a rinse solar panels, Solar Panel array cleaning robot and panel class coating solutions and other cleaning robots (Saidan et al., 2016). However, the proposed solar panel cleaning equipment that uses robotic technology that is programmed and uses little to no resources. Another significant importance of the new proposed robotic system is that it is unmanned, charges faster and is, therefore, able to reduce the dead time in between different cleaning exercises (Jaradat et al., 2015).

The new proposed robotic system is an improvement of the existing equipment in many ways, which benefit the solar panel individual owners as well as organizations. Therefore, this new advanced and innovative way of cleaning solar panels will reduce the number of resources used in the long-term (Jaradat et al., 2015). This will significantly reduce the costs of cleaning solar panels and enable them to be more efficient and increase their lifetime to the optimum level. The efficiency and effectiveness of solar panels are therefore guaranteed with the use of the new modified solar panel cleaning robot which is preprogrammed, automated and has a flexibility that enables it to clean a wide surface of the solar panel in a shorter period.

Conclusion

We've discussed a brief history of the evolution of solar panel cleaning equipment from the earliest equipment to the latest innovations in the market. Each of the discussed equipment faced significant challenges in its use demanding for the development of much better and equipment, which prove to be efficient and more efficient in the long term. With the constantly changing technology in the solar energy industry, better-automated equipment is bound to develop. As such, the future looks bright for the solar panel cleaning industry where robotic application changes the way solar panels are cleaned in effective ways.

References

Jaradat, M. A., Tauseef, M., Altaf, Y., Saab, R., Adel, H., Yousuf, N., & Zurigat, Y. H. (2015, December). A fully portable robot system for cleaning solar panels. In Mechatronics and its Applications (ISMA), 2015 10th International Symposium on(pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Mondal, A. K., & Bansal, K. (2015). Structural analysis of solar panel cleaning robotic arm. Current Science, 108(6), 1047-1052.

Mondal, A. K., & Bansal, K. (2015). A brief history and future aspects in automatic cleaning systems for solar photovoltaic panels. Advanced Robotics, 29(8), 515-524.

Park,Y B, Im H, Im M, et al. (2011). Self-cleaning effect of highly water-repellent micro shell structures for solar cell applications. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 21:633-636.

Saidan, M., Albaali, A. G., Alasis, E., & Kaldellis, J. K. (2016). Experimental study on the effect of dust deposition on solar photovoltaic panels in desert environment. Renewable Energy, 92, 499-505.

Syafiq, A., Pandey, A. K., Adzman, N. N., & Rahim, N. A. (2018). Advances in approaches and methods for self-cleaning of solar photovoltaic panels. Solar Energy, 162, 597-619.