The Importance of Cleaning Solar Panels to Maximize Performance
Investing in solar panels is a wise choice for individuals, businesses, and communities alike as it provides an eco-friendly and cost-effective way to produce clean energy from the sun. Over time, however, solar panels can become dirty, reducing their performance and efficiency. Therefore, it is essential to regularly clean your solar panels to ensure maximum power output and increased energy savings. This article will discuss the importance of cleaning solar panels, how it can help maximize their performance, and when you should clean them.
Prevent the Build-up of Dust and Dirt
Another natural element that affects solar panel performance is dust and dirt. The accumulation of these particles on the surface of the panels can cloud them, reducing their optimum performance. Regular solar panel cleaning can prevent the build-up of dust and dirt, ensuring that your solar panels operate at the projected performance level, maximizing your financial returns and energy savings.
Get Rid of the Poop
One of the most common reasons solar panels become dirty is due to bird droppings. Unfortunately, rainwater doesn’t wash away these droppings, and they can accumulate on the surface of the panels, reducing their performance. According to most solar panel manufacturers, the build-up of bird droppings can adversely affect the panels’ ability to meet projected performance. This is why it’s essential to have your solar panels cleaned regularly.
Improve the Overall Energy Efficiency
Studies have shown that regular solar panel cleaning can increase the efficiency of solar panels significantly. Sites with properly maintained solar panels through regular cleaning services have seen a 10 – 30% increase in solar efficiency. Clients who regularly have their solar panels cleaned have a 25% greater performance compared to those who don’t. The World Academy of Science, Engineering & Technology also confirms that a drop in the efficiency of a solar PV panel is not desirable, and accumulated dust on the solar panel is one of the contributing factors in the drop of efficiency. To ensure the highest performance of your solar panels, it’s important to remove the dust from their surface.
Rain Won’t Do the Job
While it’s true that rainwater can wash away some of the dirt and dust that accumulates on your solar panels, it won’t remove everything. Similar to your car windshield, the grime and dust that accumulate on your solar panels reduce their efficiency by blocking the sunlight. This loss of light caused by dirt and dust reduces the efficiency of your solar panels. To maximize the efficiency of your solar panels, you can’t rely on rain alone. Regular solar panel cleaning is necessary to ensure that they are functioning optimally.
Is Solar Panel Cleaning Really Necessary?
Cleaning your solar panels is crucial to ensuring maximum power output, increasing utility bill savings, and delivering measurable carbon savings. Solar panel cleaning can help maximize a PV system’s power output, increase utility bill savings for owners, and deliver measurable carbon savings. If you’re not generating the utility bill savings you were hoping for, cleaning your modules could help boost performance.
When Should You Clean Solar Panels?
The most obvious indication that your panels need cleaning is when you see a decrease in PV system performance. It’s natural for there to be daily, weekly, or seasonal fluctuations in solar power generation. However, prolonged and unexpected decreases in output are a sign that something is wrong. PV panel cleaning is the easiest and cheapest of all troubleshooting steps – which is why many customers start here first. If more drastic intervention is required, you may need to invest in solar panel maintenance to restore modules to former production levels.
The frequency at which you should clean your solar panels is ultimately a personal choice. However, if you want to maximize their performance and efficiency, regular solar panel cleaning is necessary. Bird droppings aren’t something that easily washes off with rain, so solar panel cleaning may be unavoidable. Flatter solar panels tend to collect more dust and thus require more frequent washing. In addition, these cleaning requirements can grow considerably as the number of panels increases. Mega solar farms must constantly clean their modules as even minute performance dips can lead to huge losses when multiplied across thousands of panels.
Conclusion
In conclusion, regular solar panel cleaning is essential to maximize the performance and efficiency of your solar panels. It helps to get rid of bird droppings, prevent the build-up of dust and dirt, and improve the overall energy efficiency of your solar panels. While rainwater can wash away some of the dirt and dust that accumulates on your solar panels, regular solar panel cleaning is necessary to ensure that they are functioning optimally.
