Seems to me there might be some money in building a drone that can clean solar panels autonomously. Where once it got done cleaning it could land in some charging cradle that's powered by the solar panels.
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Supercharger - Kettleman City, CA (LIVE 15 Nov 2017, 24 V2 + 16 V3 stalls, lounge)
- Thread starter smilepak
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Seems to me there might be some money in building a drone that can clean solar panels autonomously. Where once it got done cleaning it could land in some charging cradle that's powered by the solar panels.
I should know better than to go slightly off topic here, but I think it's valuable information. How much of a loss in generation do you see on your panels between clean and dirty? Mine get dirty but not enough to significantly impact my generation. In fact, I'm always disappointed after cleaning them, as I don't have a robot. Just my dumb face on the roof with a mop.
bkp_duke
Well-Known Member
Single data point here. I see about 5-10% loss when they are dirty. But we are in new construction, and when I say dirty . . . I mean CAKED on dirt.
brucet999
Active Member
Thanks for posting that. In draught afflicted SoCal, waterless cleaning would be a huge advantage.
Ulmo
Active Member
Apparently I'm at least a year late with the idea.
We develop drones that clean solar panels • Aerial Power introduces the worlds first cleaning drone.
Oh, well. Such is life.
The layer of dirt that will build up over the 6 months out of the year that there is no rainfall in the Central Valley may reduce output by 5%, but it isn’t a big problem.
I prefer to stay focused on the big picture: this new Supercharger site is going to be awesome, and make all the other car company CEOs look like pitiful, short-sighted, risk-averse bean counters.
cpa
Active Member
I have not measured with any scientific accuracy the difference in generation between pristine panels and grimy, dirty panels. Empirical data suggests with reading the display on our inverter, that the June cleaning adds about 1.5kWh per day. Dirty panels ~13-14+; clean panels 15-16+, depending on temperature. Fall cleaning with the shorter days and more shade from the lower angle of the sun is slightly less than 1 kWh from an 11-12 kWh output.
Fan, we generally have eight months, not six, of rain-free days. The rains go away in early April and do not return until late November. And the fall during harvest is the absolute worst, especially if there is a coating of dirt and we get about .04" of rain in October which just makes the panels streaked with mud, but does not wash away the dust and dirt.
Fan, we generally have eight months, not six, of rain-free days. The rains go away in early April and do not return until late November. And the fall during harvest is the absolute worst, especially if there is a coating of dirt and we get about .04" of rain in October which just makes the panels streaked with mud, but does not wash away the dust and dirt.
depeche
Member
Anyone been past the site with a camera in the last week?
They gotta be getting close based on the speed of construction in the past few weeks!
They gotta be getting close based on the speed of construction in the past few weeks!
I will be going by there in about 10 days and will definitely stop and take some photos. Or maybe even charge. 
rrosenbl
Member
Great discussion, and I'll admit a bit off topic, I look forward to the updated pictures, If anyone can grab some shots prior to Sunday
night 11/5, I'll include on Talking Tesla #111.
We covered robotic non-water PV cleaning drones, and here's a more comprehensive review of the products:
Rapid-cleaning robots set to cut solar energy losses, labor costs | New Energy Update
I see 10-15% decline in SoCal, but if you extrapolate over a 1MW install, that's a lot of power though with the decline in panel prices the drone designers/manufacturers/installers/maintainers are likely to loose the battle for necessity. Value of such service will decline with time.
I found this image informative:
cpa
Active Member
I will be going by there in about 10 days and will definitely stop and take some photos. Or maybe even charge.
For your sake, I hope that you are lucky enough to be able to cadge some juice. When I drove past one week ago, there was still a lot of work to be done. About 1/3 of the charging stations were installed, and there was no asphalt on the ground. Most of the charging infrastructure was not affixed. The building structure appeared to be mostly done from the exterior, but I had no way of knowing just how much interior and finish work needed to be done.
We do not know the status of the connection of the PV panels to the grid or any battery storage that may be present. We also do not know how timely Kings County is with their building inspections.
Since my construction expertise is just slightly higher than my string theory expertise, I would hazard a guess that this station will not be ready for Thanksgiving, but has a better-than-even-money chance of being open for Christmas, barring significant precipitation.
Tyl
Active Member
McManX
Member
IdaX
Member
Holy my . . . . wow. I mean, just: wow. That sign is just insane. Ludicrous even!
ken830
Model S 85, Model 3 Performance, Model X LongRange
Is the sign big enough?? It's not like we don't have a map in our car to tell us where it is!!!
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