Cleaner energy! Keeping solar panels in peak form about to get easier

While solar technology has revolutionised the Big Lap for bush-travelling grey nomads, it’s a dry and dusty continent out there and keeping panels in optimum power-producing form can be a challenge.

Dirt reduces the yield of solar modules but, as most travellers know, cleaning them can be difficult … especially if they’re perched on top of the van!

And that’s why the development of an ultra-thin coating that can effectively make solar panels self-cleaning is sparking significant excitement. While still a work in progress, researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute believe they may be on the way to cracking the case by combining the properties of titanium dioxide and thin glass.

The material changes its hydrophilicity, or water repellency, depending on whether or not it is being exposed to sunlight.

At night, for example, water drops will form and roll off the surface but, when it is exposed to sunlight, the surface will become moist all over.

“On surfaces with such a titanium dioxide coating, this effect means that no or only very little dirt can be deposited,” the Fraunhofer Institute said. “If, for example, traffic dust, sand or other dirt deposits on glass facades or solar panels, it is washed off by the nightly hydrophobicity of the surface via beading raindrops.”

The Institute says that, in addition, the cyclic alternation of hydrophobic and superhydrophilic properties means that the dirt does not adhere to the surface during the day. The new coating has the potential to be mass produced, and to be applied to existing solar cells.

“To upscale this effect, we apply crystalline titanium oxide to ultrathin glass in a roll-toroll process for the first time,” said graduate student Valentin Heiser from Fraunhofer. “This is very efficient … the ultrathin and lightweight glass can be applied subsequently to facades or directly incorporated into solar modules as a composite material – and even onto curved surfaces.”

Work will now continue on making the new coating more robust as the technology edges closer to large-scale production … and perhaps making life on the Big Lap just that little bit easier.

  • How much effort do you make to keep your solar panels clean … and fully productive? Email us here to share your thoughts.

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