Mechanical Design
The Cleaning system will design based on the following design requirements.
•    Total cleaning system needed to be modular and compact (The mechanism of a car wiper system spraying water before wiping).
•    It needed to be attached to the panel so that it could clean the panel automatically at a pre-defined frequency each day without any human control.
•    The cleaning feature needed to clear all the dust sediment, bird droppings and not allow any chemical adhesion
•    Total system needed to use a locally available material as far as possible so as to reduce the cost.
•    The material used needed to be light-weight as it had to be supported by the panel.
•    As the power for the mechanism was to be extracted from the solar panel’s battery, power required to actuate the mechanism needed to be as low as possible

.OUTCOME OF THE DESIGN
Solar panel that can show the real picture of the panel and the auto wiper attach to it
Initial Concept for Module Design
Top view of final Module Design

NEEDS OF AUTOMATIC PANEL CLEANER
Due to growing costs of electricity and concern the environmental impact of fossil fuels, eco-friendly energy sources are necessary to implement. The main method for utilize solar power are mostly depending on the Solar panels by absorbing sun rays.
Accumulation of dust on even one panel reduces their efficiency in energy generation. That is why we need to keep the panel’s surface as clean as possible. Current labour based cleaning methods for Solar panels are costly in time, water and energy usage and lack automation methods. So we have to develop automatic cleaning machine which can clean and easily move on the glass surface of panels which helps in improvement of efficiency.
Main components are used in this machine for automatic panel cleaner includes following components.
1. DC motor
2. Roller brush
3. Wiper blade
4. Water sprayer
5. Battery

Category: Essays