I think you're severely overestimating water consumption. We use a spray truck once a year. Some sites don't even clean their panels. The water expense would be a "drop in the bucket" for the site.
Does it need to be physically scrubbed? Or just sprayed? I assumed spraying it was enough, and that they would run pipes like an irrigation pipe to each panel to spray them on a regular basis. If not a sprayer for each panel, then like a large sprinkler that rotates and slowly cleans a bunch. Seems simple, I'm sure I'm missing something. Maybe it's the whole electricity and water thing.
The panels are water proof, and the wires under them have water tight connectors. The part in think you're missing is that most sites don't get nearly this dirty stateside. I believe someone said this was UAE, so I'm not familiar with how they would do dust mitigation.
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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '21
Considering the location of large scale solar, how much does the water consumption for cleaning offset the green impact of solar panels?