Does Anyone Recommend Solar Panel Cleaning When Installing?

[Gavin A]

can't disagree with any of that JD6400.

I'd entirely agree that there will be a proportion of systems installed in situations where regular panels cleaning would justify the costs in terms of the reduced output experienced due to rapid accumulation of dirt, and it looks as if Steve is probably supplying a cost effective service for this.

FWIW I'm not coming at this issue blind, we approached a company locally last year with a view to partnering up to offer cleaning services to our existing customer base, but ended up putting this on hold as after checking probably a dozen properties, including a couple of low angled commercial installs, we hadn't found any that really even seemed any dirtier than the day they were installed, barring the occasional bird dropping.

We don't have any installations on arable farms, or any in particularly heavily polluted industrial situations, so I'll readily accept that this is likely to be different in those situations, I just can accept the reverse generalisation that seems to be being made here from the few installations where the environmental factors apply to sweeping statements about the situation across the board.

 

[Solar Steve]

I will add my two penneth in as somebody that will more than likely be using Steve's services on several reasonable sized roof mounted arrays on both dairy and arable farms , and depending on the service given and the benefits received I will then be looking at introducing him to a 1MW ground mount system which we were heavily involved with last year .

Although I am a little sceptical as are others as to the severity of system losses wholesale and the frequency of cleans needed as claimed , I am also of the opinion that generally only clients with a problem will be the lions share of his contracts . I also know for a fact that some systems out there do need this service , either through poor system design or just through being installed in more aggressive environment than would normally be preferred .

Gavin has a very good point when it comes to the trial on the Lincolnshire grain store ( not one of mine ) and as I type this now , I am looking across the fields at it and I can assure you that it is in an environment that I would definitely class as aggressive . Now I am reasonably confident that we had not received much in the way of rain around here from the end of harvest up to the time of this clean , so although it is a good comparison with the other systems , I am sorry Steve but I think a few more comparisons of the same systems should be included through out the year .

That said I do not doubt it would have significantly benefited from that clean , as in my experience of grain dryer sites , just about all surfaces get covered in a fine dust that turns to a stubborn slime when an average rain fall accurs . And as for dairy farms that feed a TMR I would venture to say that you will have a job to clear that stuff perfectly even with a manual clean !

It would appear at the moment ( through personal correspondence ) that he is providing a reasonably priced service , that I will be using and will be more than happy to report back in this thread about !

Balanced post I reckon there JD6400.

Scepticism understood. It's not the first time and won't be the last. However, I'm confident we will win you over as we have the rest! :yesnod:

We will monitor every system that we clean and can obtain data for throughout this year. The Lincolnshire article is a grain dryer, the YouTube video I posted was on top of a dairy shed and the largest in Shropshire and Powys arrays were both poultry sheds and we have done numerous other poultry sheds too. We have also done a kennels with a bad bird mess problem which gave a good increase.

Large ground mounts are a different beast. These tend to get cleaned as a routine as opposed to a drop in generation. We currently are in discussions for cleaning a 40+MW site for the owner because he knows that he can't even afford to lose 5% of his output for a year as a 5% drop over a year will cost him over £250k annually. So for large scale ground mounts it makes even more sense to clean the panels regularly because the numbers are bigger, but the cost of cleaning proportionately gets smaller.

I'm looking forward to working with you mate! I hope we can sort something out.

 

[Solar Steve]

can't disagree with any of that JD6400.

I'd entirely agree that there will be a proportion of systems installed in situations where regular panels cleaning would justify the costs in terms of the reduced output experienced due to rapid accumulation of dirt, and it looks as if Steve is probably supplying a cost effective service for this.

FWIW I'm not coming at this issue blind, we approached a company locally last year with a view to partnering up to offer cleaning services to our existing customer base, but ended up putting this on hold as after checking probably a dozen properties, including a couple of low angled commercial installs, we hadn't found any that really even seemed any dirtier than the day they were installed, barring the occasional bird dropping.

We don't have any installations on arable farms, or any in particularly heavily polluted industrial situations, so I'll readily accept that this is likely to be different in those situations, I just can accept the reverse generalisation that seems to be being made here from the few installations where the environmental factors apply to sweeping statements about the situation across the board.

If you are doing residential installs only, your experience will be completely different to the clients we generally deal with. They are large companies with multiple large scale arrays that are either roof mounted on a shallow angle, agricultural sites and large ground mounted solar farms.

The website is geared towards this sort of client mainly, there are not many residential installs with case studies. We are in no way 'black-hat' with residential clients, but only a fool would turn away the business if the client asks for the service.

 

[SPARTYKUS]

Are there any known incidents of moss or algae type organic stuff covering solar panels? From what I vaguely remember lots of roofs in the UK have a moss type covering.

I have (water) solar panels on my roof from the early nineties ( early system) & its covered in lichen.

 

[Solar Steve]

I have (water) solar panels on my roof from the early nineties ( early system) & its covered in lichen.

Are they as efficient as when they were installed? Do they still function well? I don't have a lot of info about efficiency losses on thermal panels.:frown2:

 

[Marvo]

Would the water heating panels be any more or less likely to attract lichen? (Nor sure what the difference is between lichen, moss and algae TBH).

 

[Solar Steve]

Our Biggest Undertaking Ever!!!

For those who may be interested...


Solar Panel Cleaners | Clean Solar Solutions Ltd | Clean Solar Solutions Set To Clean 64,000 Solar Panels In 6 Weeks

 

[Marvo]

Re: Our Biggest Undertaking Ever!!!

For those who may be interested...


Solar Panel Cleaners | Clean Solar Solutions Ltd | Clean Solar Solutions Set To Clean 64,000 Solar Panels In 6 Weeks

Okay Steve, you posted this as a new thread in the General forum so I've merged it with this existing thread where it's pretty relevant. Whilst the replies accusing you of spam weren't completely unfounded I've removed them anyway to keep the thread tidy.

 

[Solar Steve]

Re: Our Biggest Undertaking Ever!!!

Okay Steve, you posted this as a new thread in the General forum so I've merged it with this existing thread where it's pretty relevant. Whilst the replies accusing you of spam weren't completely unfounded I've removed them anyway to keep the thread tidy.

Thanks Marvo. Spam not intended. I just thought some might find it an interesting read.

 

[Worcester]

Steve, when you've got the results of the back to back tests on the 5MW site will you post those please, that way we can see real results. Thx.

 

[Solar Steve]

Steve, when you've got the results of the back to back tests on the 5MW site will you post those please, that way we can see real results. Thx.

I will definitely try to. The client is in charge of collating and analysing the data. I was hoping to release an article on our website about the findings, but the client wants to make it a bigger deal by doing it as a white paper for use in the wider industry. There is not yet a comparison available in the UK so it should be interesting! :rockon2:

 

[Brmbaz]

The red dust from the Sahara we had in the last month coated my panels which stuck like glue . I was upp on the roof (flat roof) with a bucket of soapy water crystal clear now.

 

[Worcester]

Hope it was not tap water you used, else you've just coated them with calcium carbonate instead....

 

[Brmbaz]

As if ! No I used rain water as we had plenty of it.

 

[Gavin A]

Hope it was not tap water you used, else you've just coated them with calcium carbonate instead....

This seems to be a standard industry statement, but I really can't see why it would be an issue if the panels are just being cleaned occasionally. You're taliing about absolutely miniscule levels of calcium left in the residual water that hasn't run off the panels, and I'd expect that much of this would just dissolve back into the water next time it rained.

Our windows have been washed for 30 odd years by the same window cleaners using tap water from a bucket without any noticeable build up of calcium on them, so tbh I'd have to call hoax on this myth unless anyone can actually present some pretty hard evidence to the contrary.