Developing a smart automated cleaning design system for the floating solar panels

• Main Author: Marudhamuthu Elangovan Gobikrishnan
• Other Authors: Alessandro Romagnoli
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76090
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The constant increase in energy demand, the depletion of fossil fuels and the concern to have more eco-friendly and sustainable earth made people focus more on renewable energy sources. The solar power is one such energy resource with several advantages over other forms of electricity generation, but the requirement of land, its scarcity and cost causing a major issue. In that context, floating solar power plants seems to be a viable option as these are installed in any water bodies. Deploying floating solar panels in water can increase the efficiency by up to 10 % than the land solar panels. At the same time, the shades of the solar panels can reduce the evaporation of water by up to 70%. The major problem with floating solar panels is the deposition of bird’s dirt on the surface of the panel which might reduce the efficiency of the solar panel considerably and it will degrade the solar panel quality. It is tedious to clean the panel regularly by manual methods, so there is a greater need for some smart and automated means of maintaining the panels to keep it free from dirt. The objective of the thesis is to develop an environmental friendly self-cleaning system particularly for floating solar panels is proposed, and a scaled prototype model with the automated cleaning system has been demonstrated in land and developed. The bird’s dirt settled on the floating solar panel are being identified by continuous monitoring of the solar panel power and by using a drone-based Image processing for identifying dirt on the solar panel. Then the detected bird’s dirt is removed using pressured water projected from the water jet nozzle. After cleaning, the power of the solar panel is compared with the power which is monitored before cleaning the panel and the result was moreover similar which confirms that the efficiency of the solar panel is retrieved. Keywords: Floating solar, bird’s dirt, self-cleaning system, water jet nozzle, power monitoring, image processing