Iberdrola is to trial four innovative technologies that aim to ‘dry clean’ solar panels.
The Spanish company launched a competition to find a way to clean PV panels but streamlining the use of water following the completion of its 500MW Nunez de Balboa project in southern Spain.
The competition through the company’s international startup program Perseo received over 70 proposals from 25 countries.
The competition criteria asked for technologies that could deliver a dry cleaning solution, at a low cost, while also being portable.
Iberdrola was so impressed with the quality of entries, that it was decided to explore four different areas.
The winners are: Luxembourg’s SolarCleano, which uses a single-row robot cleaning solution; SCM Solar from Zaragoza in Spain which utilises a multi-row robot cleaning system; Houston-based Moresun which offers a protective coating; and Kipp & Zonen from the Netherlands which has developed a soiling sensor.
All the technologies will be a trialled at Nunez de Balboa site, with Iberdrola bearing the costs and providing technical support.
If the pilot projects are successful, there will be an opportunity to become an official global supplier to Iberdrola, with potential of investment for the companies as well.
SolarCleano offers modular cleaning robots fitted with brushes for wet or dry solar panel cleaning.
SCM’s robot is semi-automatic for dry cleaning and does not require any previous installation.
MoreSun is a proprietary solar coating and application system that adds an anti-reflective and anti-soiling silica shield to any solar array.
Kipp & Zonen provides a dirt monitoring system for PV panels that gathers real data on soiling making it possible to differentiate between production losses attributable to dirt and to other factors.