Solar Panel Performance: The Effects of Water and Surfactant Cleaning

The Impact of Water and Cleaning Agents" delves into the critical challenge of maintaining solar photovoltaic (PV) panel performance in the face of dust accumulation, which significantly reduces power output. The book highlights the necessity of regular cleaning to sustain high productivity, focusing on two primary methods: water-based cleaning and surfactant-based cleaning. Through experimental investigations conducted over three months, the study compares the efficiency of unwashed panels, water-cleaned panels, and surfactant-cleaned panels.The findings reveal that unwashed panels experience a steep decline in efficiency, while water-based cleaning slows this decline. However, surfactant-based cleaning proves to be the most effective, maintaining consistent efficiency and yielding the highest power output. The study demonstrates that surfactant-washed panels generate significantly more energy compared to both unwashed and water-cleaned systems, with minimal additional cost.

Autorentext
Ankit Kumar Agarwal is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology, Management and Gramothan, Jaipur, India. He received his MTech in 2015 from the Malviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, India. He is a member of Institution of Engineers, India (IEI).