Performance Enhancement of Solar Photovoltaic Panel Using Automated Solar Panel Cleaner

N recent years, India has increased its solar power installation capacity and utilizes around 7.5% of the world's total solar energy consumption. Extensive research is in progress to utilize better materials for solar photovoltaic panels. The present study focuses on an equally important and rather neglected aspect of cleaning the solar photovoltaic panels for achieving better output.Manual cleaning of the panels is often difficult at many locations and suffers from some inherent drawbacks of manual operation. In the present experimental study, an automated cleaning system using Arduino and motor controller has been implemented for cleaning of solar photovoltaic panels. The performance of the panels equipped with the aforementioned cleaning system is compared with panel not using this mechanism. The experimental data reveals that the panels with automated cleaning systems were able to produce more power output up to an extent of 25% of the rated output. There is thus a wide scope for meeting the increased energy requirements at a reduced installation cost to achieve the targeted power production. Application of the proposed system can yield reliable power output at reduced maintenance costs and shows feasibility for installation at potential locations.