Dirty solar panels reduce global solar energy output as much as 5 per cent, but a start-up in Israel has tested drone delivery of a new autonomous robot to clean rooftop arrays
Technology
27 January 2023
The Pleco cleaning robot uses rotating brushes to clean dust off solar panels
BladeRanger
Every day the dust settles on thousands of square kilometres of solar panels around the world, cutting the amount of electricity they produce. A robot designed by an Israeli start-up can autonomously clean rooftop solar panels that other cleaning robots can’t access, increasing the panels’ electricity generation by as much as 15 per cent.
Autonomous robots are widely used to clean large-scale solar arrays on the ground. Many work by sliding along rails to wipe dust, bird …
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