The Study of Dust Removal Using Electrostatic Cleaning System for Solar Panels

Abstract

This study explores the use of electrostatic cleaning to remove dust from the surface of photovoltaic solar panels. First of all, existing systems used for dust removal from solar panels were evaluated. Then, the effects of dust on the panel were investigated for Şanlıurfa province in Turkey. In addition, the elemental content of the powder was analyzed. A new device for electrostatic cleaning has been designed and implemented. The cleaning performance of this device has been tested considering the electrode designs. The electric field value was determined by analytical and numerical methods in the conventional model (parallel electrode) model. Electric field distribution was investigated using Ansys Maxwell simulation software. The printed circuit boards of the proposed model and the conventional model were produced. The traditional model with positive and negative waveform is widely used in electrostatic cleaner studies. Dust removal efficiencies and electrical losses for different frequency and voltage values were compared for both cards. It has been shown that the proposed model can perform cleaning with high efficiency despite similar loss variation.

Research on Dust Removal Strategies of Photovoltaic Panels in Ultra-high Altitude Photovoltaic Demonstration Base

“…The dust particles on the surface of the photovoltaic panel are cleaned under the action of the electric field. Altıntaş et al improved the shape of electrodes in electrostatic cleaning systems [29]. The electrodes used in the traditional EDS system are parallel electrodes, while the improved electrodes in this study are arc-shaped electrodes.…”

The future of the shale industry in light of the fluctuations in global oil prices

“…However, the installation price of electrostatic cleaning panels on PV panels is rather high, which is considered the primary drawback of this cleaning technique. 115 On the other hand, using cleaning robots is also among the innovative solutions for independently cleaning PV panels. In this context, plenty of research was done to improve the effeciency of PV panels by innovating new cleaning robots and developing other exciting techniques.…”

Reduction of Dust on Solar Panels through Unipolar Electrostatic Traveling Wave

“…A controller card was designed to drive the high voltage transformers of the 4 channels at the desired frequency (1 Hz-5 Hz) and voltage (3 kV-11 kV) [43]. The usual approach to electrostatic cleaning is for the single-phase excitation to move as the positive and negative cycle (+V, −V) of two walking waves moving in opposite directions [8].…”

“…The cleaning performance of the panels is generally expressed as the ratio between the weight of the dust before cleaning and the weight of the dust removed after cleaning [14,23,43]. The M1 plate (Figure 12) had 0.56 g of dust evenly spread over its surface.…”