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The enormous potential of the solar energy harvesting plants for providing clean energy is severely limited by dust accumulation on their optical surfaces. In lieu of the most commonly-practiced manual cleaning method of using high-pressure water jets, the electrodynamic screen (EDS) technology offers an attractive solution for removing dust particles from optical surfaces using electrostatic forces. In this paper, the impacts of different EDS design parameters in the electric field distribution on an EDS have been studied. Furthermore, based on electric field expressions, closed-form solutions for multipolar dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces in the EDS application are provided. Detailed evaluation of the EDS performance necessitates investigation of different forces involved in dust removal process. We have provided different comparisons between repelling and attracting forces exerted on dust particles in the dust removal process. Comparison results elucidate how EDS performs in removing a given size range of dust particles. The significant detrimental impact of relative humidity in the EDS performance has been quantitatively addressed. It is shown how just 10% increase in relative humidity can make the repelling force ineffective in dust removal process.

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