Solar Panels Cleaning System

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Solar Panels Cleaning System

Abstract

The project is about the design and development of a solar panel cleaning system. The main object of this design prototype is to clean the solar panel using an electrical mechanism, such that efficiency or quality of solar panel is not compromised. As a matter of fact, gulf region - especially Saudi Arabia- are facing a lot of dust storms and the solar panels need to be cleaned frequently. If task is performed manually, it will be very costly and time consuming. Water sprinklers and a special wiping material shall be used in the conceived mechanism design to insure quality of cleaning.

Project Definition:

There is more than enough solar radiation available around the world to satisfy the demand for solar power systems. The proportion of the sun’s rays that reach the earth’s surface is enough to provide for global energy consumption 10,000 times over. On average, each square meter of land is exposed to enough sunlight to produce 1,700 kWh of power every year. Solar Panel has a huge effect on our world. It can helps our environment to be better without using other power generation plants that can harm the environment, but solar power plant needs to be cleaned at least every 3 days. It generally depends on the country for example in the Middle East, it needs to be cleaned every day so it will cost so much. There are a lot of techniques for cleaning the solar panels; our idea is to design a smart solar panel that cleans itself automatically and remotely in order to maintain a high level of efficiency of the solar panel.

Project Objectives

1. Design a solar panel cleaning system which can increase the efficiency of solar panels.

2. Increase the use of solar panels.

3. Make the cleaning of solar panels simple and automated.

4. Minimize human intervention.

5. A cleaning system that does not affect the quality of the original solar panel.

6. An environmentally friendly cleaning system.

Project Specifications 1. The solar panel cleaning system operates automatically and remotely.

2. Increase the efficiency at least by 10%.

3. Recycle the cleaning water.

4. An autonomous mechanism brush to clean the 100 W solar panel.

Figure 1

shows the subsystems that we are going to implement in our project. We have two main subsystems which are Mechanical subsystem that is in the left of the block diagram, and the Control subsystem that is shown in the middle and the right of the block diagram. The Mechanical subsystem contains the cleaner along with the DC motors and the stand that holds the solar panel along with the rechargeable battery and the water pump. The Control subsystem contains the relay, solar charger, Bluetooth module and the microcontroller.

Applications • In Solar Power Plants.

• In residential houses that use solar power.

Project background:

One of the major issues that people face with the installation and the use of solar panels is the cost that is involved in it. But the cost can be drastically reduced by increasing the efficiency of each solar panel and hence reducing the number of solar panels that needs to be installed. Using less number of solar panels in order to get the required electricity will not only be cost efficient but will also help in having a positive impact on the environment. In order to improve the efficiency of the solar panels, there are two main aspects that need to be considered; the first aspect is the amount of light that falls directly on the solar, and the second aspect is how much of this light energy is capable of using effectively in order to generate power. The issue that is faced with the use of solar panels is the dust that forms over it. Dust on the cells of the solar panels reduces the efficiency of the solar panels to a large extent especially in Saudi Arabia where dust and sand storms are very common. Hence there will be an automated system that will periodically clean the solar panels in order to make sure that they perform at peak performance level. The use of right fabrication and controllers will help in making this project possible.

System Design

Design Constraints

Design constraints are conditions that need to happen for a project to be successful. In this project, we tried to relate our project to the Engineering Standards as much as we could; and that was through reading and searching about previous research papers that were conducted by expert people, and they have the same idea of our project in general. If we start with the body structure of the system, we can see the materials that we used are suitable for each part. We designed the cleaner with a body that is made from stainless tail to avoid the iron corrosion reactions because the corrosion will affect the cleaning process and the movement of the cleaner itself. Also, we used stainless tail for the water pan for the same reason. We used the aluminum as a stand of the solar panel and at the same time as a rail of the cleaner to keep the wheels running smoothly. The second important constraint is the environmental constraint. The water recollecting process was added in the design for environmental purposes, to save and not waste the water, to reuse the water in the cleaning process or other such as plant irrigations. The water recollecting depends on the engineering design like the angle of the panel and the slope of the water. Based on that, we designed the water pan. In order to increase the reliability of our design, we had to think about something that makes our system more practical. When we brought the idea of the trolley, the trolley is carrying the whole system and it has four wheels with its stoppers just to make sure that it will not move by any condition. We designed the trolley to organize the structure, especially the circuits' wirings and the other mechanical parts in the system.

Design Methodology

In order to meet all the requirements of the project, it is divided into several stages and phases. The overall aim of the project is to design a smart solar panel that cleans itself automatically and remotely.

Phase 1 (Term 1, Design M.):

● The first stage of the project was to do a primary research in order to check if the project is possible to be made technically.

● The second step that we took is to look into the various sensors, controllers and motors.

● In the next step, we divided the project into categories based on its function. It can be seen that there are two main subsystems on the project and along with this; the project requires some amount of manufacturing and design of mechanical parts to hold the solar panel and the cleaner of the solar panel.

● We started by an AutoCAD sketch of our mechanical structure, so we can build it easily in real life as shown in Figure 6.