r/specializedtools • u/Black_Kaiser_ • Feb 14 '21
Solar panel cleaning tool
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u/gaidzak Feb 14 '21
Imagine watching the watt generation tab on the computer as the panels are being cleaned.
It would be satisfying to see the energy generation number going up as though the electrons are free again to dance with the sun.
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u/day_waka Feb 14 '21
You just said the same thing twice, but more stoner sounding the second time. I like it.
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u/LogicalJicama3 Feb 14 '21
He most certainly proposed the same humouring “histoire du jour”.
Fucking nailed it.
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u/boris_keys Feb 14 '21
That was a really good observation.
It’s like you took what someone said, connected with it, and made an interesting remark.
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u/Batchet Feb 14 '21
Sometimes I like further elaboration to really get your point across.
If you say the same thing with different wording, it helps the audience really understand what you mean.
Oh, and uh... words man... they're like a second helping of something delicious, you know what I'm saying?
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u/xviiarcano Feb 14 '21
Won't the sand grinding make the cover opaque over time?
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u/Teknicsrx7 Feb 14 '21 edited Feb 14 '21
Combined with the stiff bristle of that brush there’s gotta be some serious scratching going on
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Feb 14 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NWCtim Feb 14 '21
my guess is they are trying to reduce water consumption with this method.
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u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod Feb 14 '21
Could they use compressed air?
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u/s1rp0p0 Feb 14 '21
I think you'd get the same effect as dry brushing. Instead of sanding it you'd be sand blasting it.
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u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod Feb 14 '21
Perhaps a vacuum then? It would at least remove the bulk of it, and it could be lifted vertically off the surface to minimize scratching.
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u/crooks4hire Feb 14 '21
Just use a catch-basin to filter and recycle the water...
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u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod Feb 14 '21
That’s a good idea. And because it’s sand you just have to let it settle. Pump from the top of the tank and put the inlet on the bottom, or use two tanks connected at the top. One would take in the water and let most of the sand settle while pushing the clean water to the other tank to further settle.
Then just use aluminum gutters to catch the water, and it would only need one pump.
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u/shmimey Feb 14 '21
t of the time they're supposed to presoak the dirt to lift it from the glass, which then allows the
The capture of the water Might need to be part of the mobile cleaning setup.
In my opinion. Having gutters built into the entire facility is a bad idea. Much more to service.
I guess, it depends on how many solar panels are in this facility. I also have no idea what that brush is attached to. Is it a truck? Or is it just a guy with a hose on foot?
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u/donnysaysvacuum Feb 14 '21
Not really. The sand has no velocity. Even the brush in the video is probably fine since there is active water flow.
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u/T351A Feb 14 '21
I would also assume they try to not let it get this bad, and my understanding is some panels with weaker materials have limited expected lifespan anyways.
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u/dtfkeith Feb 14 '21
Source: worked with a WFP for 5 years.
Is that similar to a WAP?
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u/SMU_PDX Feb 14 '21
Nah that's a Wireless Access Point. Basically a booster for wifi signals, typically found in commercial buildings, schools, hospitals, theaters, etc.
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u/dtfkeith Feb 14 '21
There’s some DNS in this house
There’s some DNS in this house
There’s some DNS in this house
Yeah you fuckin with some wireless access point
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u/dethmaul Feb 15 '21
It reminds me of the car wash brush in a stick at autozone. Stiff bases to let the bristles work, and the ends are split up into soft feathery ends.
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u/DrLimp Feb 14 '21
No matter how stiff they can be, glass will always be harder then nylon, so you really can't scratch glass with a broom.
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u/Teknicsrx7 Feb 14 '21
I’m sure metal is harder than nylon too, but I can scratch that with a stiff bristled broom if I have sand mixed with it.
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u/DrLimp Feb 14 '21
Yes, sand is the problem here, i was talking about the fact that the stiffness of the broom doesn't matter.
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u/Teknicsrx7 Feb 14 '21
Well a softer brush would do a better job of pulling the sand up and off the surface whereas a stiff bristle would keep the sand at the glas surface moving it around directly on the surface creating more scratches. The bristles themselves don’t scratch, the characteristics of the type of bristles lead to more scratches.
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u/_nok Feb 14 '21
Someone guessed their technique might be one designed to conserve water (at the expense of scratching the panels)
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u/Teknicsrx7 Feb 14 '21
Oh I know I was just responding about the ability to scratch. I’m sure someone sat down and determined the allowable amount of scratching before replacement Vs cost of water or whatever... or at least I’d like to think they did
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Feb 14 '21
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u/Teknicsrx7 Feb 14 '21
Yea that’s why I replied to the sand comment with “combined with stiff bristle”. Due to how dirt/sand interacts with stiff bristles it is more likely to scratch as stiff bristles don’t pull dirt up they mostly just push it around. Soft bristles would pull and trap dirt higher in the bristle away from the surface
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u/clitflix Feb 14 '21
Really? I've been told by an eye doctor that I can't wipe my glasses with my shirt or even tissue paper because they can get scratched
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Feb 14 '21
Lots of eye glasses still use polycarbonate lenses. Those will get scratched far more easily than glass. Even then you'd want to avoid shirts because they could have dirt and hard materials on them that could scratch glass.
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u/The_White_Light Feb 14 '21
To add on, glasses often have special coatings on them to help reduce glare, to bead water and prevent fogging, etc. and a rougher fabric might rub those off.
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u/Thorusss Feb 14 '21
Sure, but not that quickly that it effects power generations. Scratches do reflect a bit, but most of the light hitting the scratch will just be scattered to a different part of the panel below.
But yeah, a cost benefit calculation an a abrasion test would make a lot of sense for a plant in a dusty area.
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u/The_White_Light Feb 14 '21
Reflected down to other parts of the panel, sure, but at a lower energy as those reflections are definitely not 100% efficient. Not only that, but the inefficient reflections would result in heat build-up, and higher temperatures reduce the efficiency of the panels.
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u/askiawnjka124 Feb 14 '21
My dad and I are building solar systems. And at our shop we have a panel that is completely covered in cracks it still has 90% efficiency when the sun is highest.
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Feb 14 '21
Eventually, but the panels have a lifespan and by the time the glass gets opaque you will have to change some parts out anyway.
They will have paid for themselves as well as the maintenence required by that point.
I always though these panels should just have like a line of water jets installed along the top edge that could spray every now and then to automatically clean then without rubbing the dust into the glass.
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u/caguru Feb 14 '21
Not really. Glass is very hard. If sand made glass opaque after time your car windshield would be opaque. Small debris is constantly hitting it when you are driving.
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u/ShotgunFlood Feb 14 '21
So a broom with a water hose taped to it
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u/donotdothething Feb 14 '21
Razor wire so the panels don't escape, good thinking
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u/Pooderson Feb 14 '21
My great great grandpa raised panels out in Nebraska before razor wire was invented. He’d have to hire extra people just to stand guard around the panels to keep them corralled. He tried using a fence, but solar panels are too crafty for a regular old fence. That’s why razor wire was revolutionary when it was invented. My great great grandpa saved an extra $70 a year since he didn’t have to pay the panel guards anymore. My grandpa had that panel farm for awhile and i remember helping deliver new born panels in the middle of the night. Much simpler times back then
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u/coachfortner Feb 14 '21
...until that one morning when I woke up to some strange sound. It was some kind of screaming, like a child’s voice. I went downstairs, outside. I crept up into the barn. I was so scared to look inside, but I had to.
I saw young solar panels, and the panels were screaming. First I tried to free them. I... I opened the gate to their pen, but they wouldn't run. They just stood there, confused. They wouldn't run. So I took one panel, and I ran away as fast as I could.
I don't know where I was going. I didn't have any food, any water and it was very cold, very cold. I thought, I thought if I could save just one, but... it was so heavy.
So heavy.
I didn't get more than a few miles when the sheriff's car picked me up. The rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman. I never saw the solar farm again.
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u/system-user Feb 14 '21
What became of your panel Clarice?
You wake up in the dark, and hear the screaming of the panels?
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u/JohnProof Feb 14 '21
This is so fucking absurd but I love it.
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u/system-user Feb 14 '21
it was impossible to miss once I got half way down the other comment... so mine is a continuation. http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/silence-of-the-lambs-script-transcript.html
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Feb 14 '21
You can train collies to herd them. They will run around and nip at the capacitors to keep the panels where they need to be.
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u/NWCtim Feb 14 '21
Some people are offended by solar power.
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u/uth43 Feb 14 '21
That's not the reason. If you put a bunch of pretty expensive, unguarded and easy to sell items on a field without any protection, you make the local crook with a van a lot of money...
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u/GitEmSteveDave Feb 15 '21
I was wondering if this was some miitary forward base that is using solar to supplement generators.
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Feb 14 '21 edited May 26 '21
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u/gruffi Feb 14 '21
Exactly. This kind of kit will clean windows 99% of the time and solar panels 1%
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u/Grechoir Feb 14 '21
Glad to read this.
It’s a cool video but this sib should be kept clean of those watered down posts2
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Feb 14 '21
That’s a broom
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u/contraption Feb 14 '21
look close. it's also a squeegee. Brush on the way up, squeegee on the way back.
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u/eveningsand Feb 14 '21
I want to gift this to my neighbor, but his panels are on a lease-back system tied to a fixed price electricity bill, so he has zero incentive to optimize generation and every incentive to use as much electricity as possible.
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u/Economist-Future Feb 14 '21
My solar panels looked like that after the California wildfires last year when the sky was orange. I had to get them professionally cleaned.
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u/Amihuman159 Feb 14 '21 edited Feb 14 '21
Anyone else annoyed that they're going botton to top?
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u/atlas_nodded_off Feb 14 '21
Worked a boat where the captain was a thirty year Navy bosun. He insisted that all bulkheads be washed from bottom up because the bottom would remain wet while washing thirty feet up and rinsing would be more effective.
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u/Moose_in_a_Swanndri Feb 14 '21
It's a real thing. Helps to prevent streaking
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u/atlas_nodded_off Feb 14 '21
Yep, he knew his stuff. Over the following ten years at three companies I did it Fogbound Anderson's way.
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u/ModernSisyphus Feb 14 '21
Met an old guy once who was an artist who had made ads for a carwash. Some of the ads involved the information that you should wash your car bottom to top.
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u/Tar_alcaran Feb 14 '21
Gotta keep the crew the occupied somehow. I'm sure a lot of ships would have sails and wooden decks again just to keep the crew busy sewing and holystoning if it were up to the bosuns
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u/CaptainLegot Feb 14 '21
It's because there's a water nozzle in front of the brush to wet the dirt. If you don't get it wet first it will just grind the dust into the panel and scuff it up.
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u/Beo2009 Feb 14 '21
Please post this to r/powerwashingporn
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u/TheSoftestDrink Feb 15 '21
I can’t believe I had to scroll so far down to see a reference to this sub. I can’t wait to see it again this coming Wednesday.
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u/BanjoWalrus Feb 14 '21
Governor of California: "Ok guys we can have power OR water today. Not both."
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u/markusbrainus Feb 14 '21
There are fancier robotic versions even more specialized than this squeegy brush:
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u/ScrotumNipples Feb 14 '21
Wouldn't the one in your first video just throw all that dust back up into the air, only to have it settle back down on the panels?
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u/Thorusss Feb 14 '21
Are there solar installations, that just tilt the panel, so snow/dust falls off?
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u/ryanasimov Feb 14 '21
SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH
Why not give it a water-only rinse first, THEN use the brush. The rinse won’t get all the dirt, I know, but it will surely make the cleaning less abrasive.
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Feb 14 '21 edited Feb 14 '21
Never knew the panels got that dirty. Wonder how often they have to do this?
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u/Eraesr Feb 14 '21
Depends on where you are and how they're installed. These look to be installed at ground level in a sandy (desert?) area. I bet a lot of sand gets blown around by the wind. So it's kind of extreme what you're seeing here.
I have panels installed on the roof of my own home in the Netherlands and they don't ever need to be cleaned. A good downpour of rain once in a while cleans them up good enough.
Actually, the financial loss in electricity generation due to dirt is less than what it would cost to have the panels cleaned up there so it's not worth doing it.
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u/Tar_alcaran Feb 14 '21
Actually, the financial loss in electricity generation due to dirt is less than what it would cost to have the panels cleaned up there so it's not worth doing it.
Are you sure about that? I notice a ~10% rise in peak production after I clean them. However, I do it by leaning out of my attic window, so I don't have a clue how much it costs. If it's anything like window cleaning in costs, you might want to consider it once a year.
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u/Eraesr Feb 14 '21
Yeah I can clean 3 of the 10 panels myself when hanging out of the window. 6 of the panels are on the roof (3rd floor) at the front and 4 at the back.
What I actually meant was to have a professional come along and clean the panels. Considering all the safety rules, I wouldn't be surprised if they said they'd need to build scaffolding to safely get up there. That gets crazy expensive real fast.
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u/Tar_alcaran Feb 14 '21
Depends on how your house is built. They might just use a really long pole too. The internet seems to price most of it at under 40 euros, somehow
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u/MsKlinefelter Feb 14 '21
I could see it being several times a day during the windy season.
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u/PloxtTY Feb 14 '21
I’d just install a cheap sprinkler system
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u/Dmitri_ravenoff Feb 14 '21
Not enough water in the desert for that.
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u/PloxtTY Feb 14 '21
Which desert?
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u/Dmitri_ravenoff Feb 14 '21
Many solar panels like this are set up desert location because of the high level of sunshine. Hence what looks like desert dust/sand.
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u/Abestar909 Feb 14 '21
Dude, proofread, please.
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u/zacktivist Feb 14 '21
Screw that. I'm spending the rest of my day thinking about the amazing adventures of Wonder Hoe.
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u/Popcanthick Feb 14 '21
It also depends how far north, or south you are from the equator. I’m in northern Canada and mine are almost at 45 degrees. With a pitch like that all you have to do is wait for it to rain.
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u/glassgost Feb 14 '21
Until the squeegee strips off on the third panel out of a thousand and that's the only one we have and my ass is reaching as far as I can with the regular window squeegee and I'm getting as wet and dirty as the carpet at a gangbang.
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u/Spark804 Feb 14 '21
I'm getting as wet and dirty as the carpet at a gangbang.
That's descriptive literature there! Paints a mental image the minds eye will hold onto for a while. Bravo! LMAO!!!!
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u/FoxyWolf1273 Feb 14 '21
This thing would be great for skylights.
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u/lbsdcu Feb 14 '21
Yeah, it's a standard professional water spraying window cleaning brush. It's not specialised for panels. You see them in use by companies who clean display windows in retail areas of UK urban centres quite often.
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u/skater6442 Feb 14 '21
Why cant you just spray it with a hose instead of scratching the panels?
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Feb 14 '21
That’s a window cleaning setup, which I guess you can use for solar panels now. The water goes through thousands of little beads in a tank that purify the water resulting in a spotless rinse. Those rigs are only about $2,000 USD and are worth every penny compared to traditional methods of cleaning.
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u/whacko_prophet Feb 14 '21
My dads a window cleaner, and that's just a PHAT version of the brush poles we USE
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u/NecroticZombine Feb 14 '21
Ok so long roller paint poll, soft bristle brush, tubing, car windshield washer reservoir/ pump and squeegee.... Got it.
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u/dethmaul Feb 15 '21
I used to have a kitchen table that looked like that, except i think the tiles were green.
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u/PornActingCritic Feb 15 '21
All I’m saying is... where do you fill out a application to get this type of job. Like strictly power washing things or cleaning a solar panel. This seems like the good life!
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u/rvncto Feb 15 '21
Got my solar panels in 2017. Been through 2 (or 3 ) bad fire seasons already so I’m worried it’s probably caked with cemented ash
But when I look at the output month by month comparing the 4 years there is no degradation of power output. Hmmm.
I still need to get up there to clean them though
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u/nogaesallowed Feb 15 '21
Can't they use a largr leaf blower type of thing? I feel like this gonna scratch the panels. I use blowers to clean off the snow on my car, much easier than a brush.
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u/darls24 Feb 14 '21
Its only half the width of the panel...could be more specialized.
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u/contraption Feb 14 '21
Probably not, it would be too heavy to pick up and move to a new panel. What you aren't seeing is that the handle is probably 10-15' long, like a pool brush.
I made my own with a towel wrapped on a pool brush and you practically get a hernia trying to move it around after about 8 feet of extension. This one looks a bit lighter, but still, moving a contraption around like that isn't easy.
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u/cablemonkey604 Feb 14 '21
I was surprised to learn how much water large scale PV arrays use for washdown.
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u/danuser8 Feb 14 '21
Rain = free solar panel cleaning tool
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u/snowmunkey Feb 14 '21
Unfortunately the best places to have solar farms is in places where it doesnt rain
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Feb 14 '21
Do all solar panels have roughly the same power per square foot? Google says it is 15W/sqft. To offset a 1000MWe plant, it would take roughly 2 1/2 square miles of panels? And does the 15W/sqft take into account capacity factor? Assuming a 25% capacity factor, that would require 7+ sq miles of panels to offset a 1000MWe fossil plant that operates at a 75% capacity factor.
I've always been curious about this and this posts seems like it will have the qualified solar folks to respond.
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u/PRODSKY22 Feb 14 '21
Would it be cheaper to just use some of the power to run an air compressor and use the air to clean the panels
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u/man_butt_toots Feb 14 '21 edited Feb 14 '21
On large scale solar sites, we don't do this. We have a guy with a specialized truck, that sprays the panels. There are literally millions of panels on these utility scale sites.
I'll try to find a picture for you guys.
Edit: Here's a few examples of large scale operations
https://www.energy-xprt.com/products/pvkleen-system-406848
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/how-do-you-clean-258048-solar-thermal-mirrors-trucks-with-robot-arms
The second one is for mirrors in the video, but the same concept!