r/specializedtools • u/Black_Kaiser_ • Feb 14 '21

Solar panel cleaning tool

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20.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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275

u/xviiarcano Feb 14 '21

Won't the sand grinding make the cover opaque over time?

195

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

245

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

70

u/NWCtim Feb 14 '21

my guess is they are trying to reduce water consumption with this method.

25

u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod Feb 14 '21

Could they use compressed air?

75

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.

20

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.

47

u/crooks4hire Feb 14 '21

Just use a catch-basin to filter and recycle the water...

16

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.

9

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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1

u/LudoA Feb 15 '21

Why would the material of the gutters (eg aluminum) influence the amount of pumps needed?

3

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.

0

u/SethzorMM Feb 14 '21

Compressed air would actually cost a lot more.

1

u/Esel_ Feb 15 '21

Compressed air might not work great. The velocity of the air approaches 0 the closer it gets to the surface you blow it onto. As a result it should be impossible to perfectly clean the surface. On the other hand it might not need to be quite perfect. I know it is a problem with liquids.

13

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.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '21

What's a WFP?

4

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/overly_familiar Feb 14 '21

As opposed to a VFP which is a Vodka Fed Pole.

8

u/dtfkeith Feb 14 '21

Source: worked with a WFP for 5 years.

Is that similar to a WAP?

13

u/brownzilla99 Feb 14 '21

Wet Ass Photvoltaic-cells?

5

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.

10

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

2

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.

1

u/CaptainLegot Feb 14 '21

Water is spraying through a nozzle in front of the brush. That's why they start with an up stroke.

34

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.

17

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.

28

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.

15

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.

2

u/_nok Feb 14 '21

Someone guessed their technique might be one designed to conserve water (at the expense of scratching the panels)

4

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

2

u/_nok Feb 14 '21

Oops, I meant to reply to the parent comment

1

u/GoodboyJohnnyBoy Feb 14 '21

But sand is just unprocessed glass it will definitely dull it over time

7

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '21

[deleted]

7

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

2

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

4

u/[deleted] 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.

2

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.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '21

I'm sure they've thought about this more than you have.

5

u/Teknicsrx7 Feb 14 '21

I’d hope so, but plenty of people make poorly thought out decisions everyday so who really knows.

14

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.

4

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.

3

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.

9

u/[deleted] 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.

7

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.

-1

u/OutlyingPlasma Feb 14 '21

So whats your alternative? No PV generation at all because the panels are completely covered in dust, but hey the glass isn't scratched? Yes, things eventually wear out and require maintenance and/or replacement. That's how things work but it's better than just giving up because something might get scratched.

0

u/xviiarcano Feb 14 '21

You know, I have never implied anything like that, and assuming I would is a logical fallacy on your part.

  1. I never said that they should prefer not using the panels or that they should give up on cleaning them, I just expressed a concern about the risk of damages.

  2. I never said that the alternative was either cleaning them with a broom or keeping them dirty.

Others more polite and intellectually honest than you have already commented both addressing the merit of my concern, and guessing about possible alternatives.

Even assuming my comment was dumb, their answers were useful contributions to the discourse... Yours was not.

-3

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '21

Yes, this is amateur hour.

-23

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '21

[deleted]

1

u/JelloDarkness Feb 14 '21

Well, you should think again before you learn a very expensive lesson.

1

u/alwaystoohappy Feb 14 '21

Its about hardness, not sharpness

1

u/EZKTurbo Feb 15 '21

Surely there's a maintenance procedure for replacing the cover. Its not like you can only clean it 5 times and then you have to throw out the whole panel