Electrostatic Cleaning Equipment for Dust Removal from Solar Panels of Mega Solar Power Generation Plants

Electrostatic cleaning equipment has been developed to remove dust from the surface of solar panels. When a high ac voltage is applied to the parallel screen electrodes placed on a solar panel, the resultant electrostatic force acts on the particles near the electrodes. The reciprocatory motion of the particles between the electrodes is due to the alternating electrostatic force, where some particles pass through the openings of the upper screen electrode and fall downward along the inclined panel owing to the gravitational force. We demonstrated that the dust is removed efficiently from the panel surface. The power consumption of this system is negligibly low. This technology is expected to increase the effective efficiency of mega solar power plants constructed in deserts.