A review on cleaning mechanism of solar photovoltaic panel

Accumulation of dust (also known as soiling) on the surface of solar panels decreases the amount of sunlight reaching the solar cells underneath and thus the efficiency of the solar panel is severely impacted. To harness their designed capacity to its fullest, they need to be cleaned periodically, usually with water. Due to water scarcity in some area, cleaning becomes difficult, challenging and subsequently costly. Solar Photovoltaic conversion technique of is largely used as a pioneer and efficient conversion of solar energy. Many factors govern Solar Photovoltaic energy conversions efficiency like solar intensity, the area of the module, semiconductor, tracking mechanisms, dust, and dirt etc. Nowadays among these factors dust and dirt has become crucial for research since they have a significant effect on conversion efficiency. If proper cleaning mechanisms are used then, it may show about 25% improvement in output energy or about 15 to 20% enhancement in conversion efficiency. Hence, rigorous study of SPVC automated cleaning mechanism is vital. This paper discusses a comprehensive overview of dust problem and the recent developments made on automated cleaning system of solar photovoltaic modules which gives a brief overview of techniques like electrical, mechanical, chemical and electrostatic. The main objective of the study is to review the literature on solar photovoltaic module automated cleaning techniques for identifying research gaps in the automated cleaning systems.