Portable and Customizable Solar Panel Cleaner Design

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to design a solar panel cleaning tool that is easy to operate and can adjust the size of the installed solar panels. There are several factors that can affect the performance of solar panels, namely the placement of solar panels that cause accumulation of dust, bird droppings and water (salt) stains. The traditional cleaning system is still done manually. Manual cleaning has several disadvantages such as panel damage, risk of worker accidents, movement difficulties, poor maintenance, and others. Therefore, a solar panel cleaning tool is needed on the market that can help optimize solar panel performance and is easy to operate. The method used in this research is to design a prototype solar panel cleaner that can be operated easily and can be adjusted according to the size of the installed solar panel. The result of this research is a prototype of a solar panel cleaning tool with a total mass of 6 kg and easy to operate with a microcontroller system. Effectively this equipment shows the function of the cleaning tool to do its job, namely cleaning dust. Furthermore, this research needs to analyze the techno-economics of addition batteries to facilitate operation.