Photovoltaik-Institut Berlin verifies impact of cleaning robots

In many regions of the world, sand and fine dust cause photovoltaic power plants to experience considerable yield losses. Although the manual or automatic cleaning of modules is intended to remedy this situation, it may actually damage the solar panels’ glass surfaces. The Photovoltaik-Institut Berlin (PI Berlin) has developed a number of stress tests that closely simulate practical conditions to investigate the effect of cleaning equipment on module surfaces. In addition to recommending suitable cleaning methods, the tests provide module manufacturers with evidence that the surfaces of their modules are resistant to cleaning.