Experimental study of self-sustainable hybrid solar photovoltaic cleaning mechanism coupled with water distillation unit

Abstract

In the present research work a novel self-sustainable hybrid solar photovoltaic cleaning mechanism coupled with water distillation unit has been proposed. The experiments were conducted on the PV (photovoltaic) modules at Bennett University, Greater Noida A-block terrace from 7th to 13th October, 2019. Post installation, the average efficiencies of the solar PV module system with and without cleaning were compared to obtain a hike by 1.34 %. The water used for cleaning was recycled using a single slope basin type solar still which indicated a working efficiency of 67.94 %. On an average the solar still yielded 5.3 Litres of pure water every day during the experiment with a TDS (total dissolved solids) level of 104 ppm.