Time-based dry cleaning brush controller for PV energy yield enhancement

Photovoltaic (PV) cleaning systems are getting popular to clean their dusty and sticky surface developed by foreign particles with morning dew and light rain. However, a non-automated PV cleaning system requires human intervention, time, and cost and is often not feasible for large PV generations. Current studies investigate different types of automated cleaning systems, which are being deployed to overcome such dust problems ranging from wet to dry cleaning. Exposure to different types of automated PV cleaning systems has been shown in other studies to be related to adverse effects in overcoming dust problems. Such approaches, however, have failed to address the sticky layer of dust and foreign particles accumulated on PV surfaces. This paper presents the development of a time-based PV cleaning brush controller that is operated through an automatic periodical time activation method. This study focuses on the mechanical design of the brush controller encompasses two carrier and one rotating motors, nylon brush in aluminum structured frame, hollow aluminum shaft, linear rails, real time clock (DS1307), and Arduino Uno microcontroller. A self-designed small-scale test-bed of 100W PV module was installed on a rooftop of a room within the premises of Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Johor, Malaysia. The functional time-based cleaning brush controller was configured to operate at a frequency of five cleaning cycles per day without human intervention within the test-bed. It is a dry cleaning approach without any soapy water employment to realize the multiple cleaning cycles every day at 7A.M. within the overall testing. Results indicate that dust accumulation has a substantial effect on the PV performance on a timescale of seasons in this location. In addition, the system achieved a 72% of dust removal rate from the 5 cycles, whilst it is 80.6% at its 10 cycles of cleaning. Overall, the result shows that the energy yield of PV with the cleaning system is enhanced by 26% more than that of the unclean PV. The cleaning system design can be very effective for rooftop-based PV applications, as recently, there are about 6.8MW rooftop based net energy metering project planted at UTHM, a way to support green energy growth under sustainable development goals.