Fig. 13 shows the sand accumulated on the panel, and the righthand
side shows the panel after the cleaning operation was
applied to the left half of the solar panel for 3 min. Fig. 13 clearly
shows that the cleaning system is effective in removing accumulated
sand from a solar panel. The output power of the panel with
the cleaner plate (without dust) was 97% compared to that without
the cleaner plate and dust. The powerwas reduced to 60% when the
dust covered the plate, and it was recovered to 90% after operation.
Another experiment was conducted to demonstrate that the sand
that approaches the cover glass is repelled if the system is operated
continuously. The performance of the cleaning system was better
under continuous operation than under intermittent operation.
Field experiment must be conducted under desert conditions to
determine the optimal operational scheme and to demonstrate the
effectiveness of the system for the specific conditions of interest.
If the surface of the plate gets wet owing to rainfall or dewfall, or
if a sandstorm and rainfall occur simultaneously, the accumulated
sand will adhere strongly to the plate owing to liquid bridging
force. Cleaning experiments conducted under these conditions
confirmed that high performance was achieved after the plate
dried.