Panel cleaning robot

[farmerfred86]

We have one array that is very high and difficult to clean, it does however stay relatively clean because of its position.
Saw this advertised by BeBa energy today and thought it worth sharing as others might have the same.

 

[snarling bee]

Saw it at the Energy Expo event.
You've reminded me to ring them.

On our solar farm, they brought in a tractor mounted brush. Took a day and half to do 25 acres/5 MW

 

[Doing it for the kids]

I’d have thought being slower it’s only got a use on tricky sites which I imagine is not many as a % of all sites.

it does I suppose reduce the risk of working from heights a bit?

 

[Proud_Hillbilly]

Whoa that does look stunning!

But how fast are they? The robot reminds me on a mars rover lol. I hope it is faster than it

 

[Proud_Hillbilly]

I did a bit of a Googleing and as it turns out they are not fast or slow. But from this video they cleaned 5000 panels in 5 days which is impressive..

 

[Spuddler]

On a ground mounted site it wouldn’t be competitive enough. I can clean approx 3 to 4 MW a day.

 

[Steevo]

I did a bit of a Googleing and as it turns out they are not fast or slow. But from this video they cleaned 5000 panels in 5 days which is impressive..

That side by side comparison is impressive!

 

[Steevo]

I’d have thought being slower it’s only got a use on tricky sites which I imagine is not many as a % of all sites.

it does I suppose reduce the risk of working from heights a bit?

On a ground mounted site it wouldn’t be competitive enough. I can clean approx 3 to 4 MW a day.

Surely depends if there is room for a tractor to run alongside.

Site local to here there wouldn't be sufficient room to run between the rows of panels with a tractor to clean.

There's also quite a lot of moving around from panel group to panel group like in this image below. That would take an age to clean with the robot.

 

[Spuddler]

Surely depends if there is room for a tractor to run alongside.

Site local to here there wouldn't be sufficient room to run between the rows of panels with a tractor to clean.

There's also quite a lot of moving around from panel group to panel group like in this image below. That would take an age to clean with the robot.

Surely depends if there is room for a tractor to run alongside.

Site local to here there wouldn't be sufficient room to run between the rows of panels with a tractor to clean.

There's also quite a lot of moving around from panel group to panel group like in this image below. That would take an age to clean with the robot.

 

[Proud_Hillbilly]

Surely depends if there is room for a tractor to run alongside.

Site local to here there wouldn't be sufficient room to run between the rows of panels with a tractor to clean.

There's also quite a lot of moving around from panel group to panel group like in this image below. That would take an age to clean with the robot.

People can actually clean this many solar panels???? HOW? I would throw my brush and sponges and go running away as fast as possible if someone told me "Hey you gotta clean these by monday". To be fair those solar plants are probably cleaned by a large team of people but this just seems so impossible to clean manually.

 

[Steevo]

@Spuddler Might just work on these:

 

[Spuddler]

Got to admit, those look awkward?

 

[Doing it for the kids]

@Spuddler Might just work on these:

wow

IS that in this country?

ive never seen that before, seems odd, shading will be a big issue if in UK surely, ours were spread out to make sure low sun still hit all the arrays. also hard to maintain vegetation growth - in fact I think that design will be a massive headache in 5 yrs time

I think this is not the normal, certainly in the UK.

plenty of gangs are cleaning 100 acre sites with tractor mounted kit easily. I just cant see that robot working on a large scale

 

[f0ster]

for the Uk the ideal angle is about 36 deg, and on flat level ground there has to be about 9m between rows to avoid shading in December

 

[Steevo]

wow

IS that in this country?

ive never seen that before, seems odd, shading will be a big issue if in UK surely, ours were spread out to make sure low sun still hit all the arrays. also hard to maintain vegetation growth - in fact I think that design will be a massive headache in 5 yrs time

I think this is not the normal, certainly in the UK.

plenty of gangs are cleaning 100 acre sites with tractor mounted kit easily. I just cant see that robot working on a large scale

Yes, it's a site local to me. One of the last to get the FITs before they restricted them so been in a while now.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Wow.

how do they control vegetation?
how bus is the site?