91视频

As more solar power is added to the energy grid in Western Pennsylvania and across the world, researchers at 91视频 are thinking about what comes next: how to maintain those solar panels.聽

The technical term for when dust, pollen or other particles in the air inevitably settle on top of solar panels is called 鈥榮oiling鈥� and it can significantly reduce how much light a panel can absorb.聽 That can be a problem in the arid, sunny regions where solar farms are often located such as the American Southwest, India and the Sahel region of Northern Africa.聽

Bringing technology from outer space to Earth

Right now, most solar panels are cleaned with water by hand or robotic equipment, which requires a lot of time and resources. But one 91视频 alumnus believes there鈥檚 a way to do it at a fraction of the cost.聽

鈥淪oiling is a really big problem, and companies spend lots of money to clean their solar panels,鈥� said聽Michael Provenzano(opens in new window), a graduate of the聽Tepper School of Business(opens in new window) and a member of 91视频鈥檚听Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship(opens in new window)鈥檚听VentureBridge program(opens in new window), which supports 91视频-alumni founded companies.聽

鈥淪olar farms 鈥� which could be hundreds of acres and millions of solar panels 鈥� cost millions of dollars to clean every year,鈥� Provenzano said. 鈥淏ecause of that, they don't clean very often and dust sits on the panels, and that's causing them to lose revenue. Depends on different regions, but some of them see up to 60% losses and revenue just from dust.鈥�

Provenzano鈥檚 Pittsburgh-based company,聽, has licensed panel-cleaning technology from NASA with the goal of using it on Earth. The technology, called an electrodynamic dust shield, is vital in NASA鈥檚 missions on the Moon and Mars, where it has already successfully demonstrated dust removal from important surfaces. If solar panels and other infrastructure aren鈥檛 cleaned, dust collects on them and spacecraft may stop functioning. NASA researchers saw this situation play out in 2024 when聽 on the Opportunity rover鈥檚 solar panels and diminished its power supply.聽

鈥淭he dust shield cleans 97% of dust off of the glass panels,鈥� said Provenzano, who learned about the technology when he was working at aerospace company聽Astrobotic. 鈥淚t makes a lot of sense to use it in space when you don鈥檛 have people that can walk over and clean something off easily. We saw that and thought, 鈥楬ey, we can use that in other applications.鈥欌��

Because dust is also a problem for solar panels on Earth, Provenzano wants to build on NASA鈥檚 technology and deploy it on a much larger scale.聽

Zapping solar panels clean

The dust shield is created through a multistep process: First, thin lines of conductive material are added to the glass top of the solar panel and are covered with a clear protective film. Then, an electrical current is channeled through the conductive traces, charging everything on the surface of the panel. When the polarity of the electrical current is quickly flipped, the charged dust particles are repelled and pushed off the surface of the panel.

鈥淚t鈥檚 cool, you can actually see the dust particles bouncing off of the panel,鈥� Provenzano said.聽

There is a risk that the dust could settle back on the panel, he said, but there are ways to address that, too.聽

鈥淭he panel is usually tilted so gravity and wind are on our side,鈥� Provenzano said. 鈥淏ut the good part about our system is that we can clean every single day. We can clean multiple times a day. So if that does happen, we can just redirect the current to push it downward off the panel, not in the direction of other solar panels.鈥�

The impact of this split-second cleaning zap could be big. While there are installation costs and the technology does lower the energy transmittance of the panels by about 1%, Provenzano believes dust shields will ultimately save solar operators money. It would cost roughly $0.14 to clean one megawatt of capacity, or approximately 2,000 solar panels.

鈥淭he net gain from using the system is still highly positive,鈥� Provenzano said. "Operators might lose a tiny bit in power production, but they鈥檙e gaining a lot because they鈥檙e not as dirty as often. One solar farm in the Western U.S. can stretch for hundreds of acres and have millions of solar panels that cost millions of dollars to clean.鈥澛�

Clear Solar has 13 pilot projects around the world and in the U.S., including Pittsburgh, and will begin field tests in July.聽

Making solar technology more reliable and longer lasting

91视频 assistant research professor聽 is using wind to take on soiled solar panels.聽 In his work at聽, Isaacs is focused on improving and maintaining solar power in places that don鈥檛 have access to the electrical grid. Because solar is one of the only options in these locations, the stakes of making sure the panels work reliably is high.

鈥淚n some of the dirtiest locations, dust can actually reduce power output by more than half,鈥� said Isaacs, part of the聽. 鈥淢y research looks at how we account for these floating particulates to estimate the performance of our solar panels.鈥澛�

To that end, Isaacs uses computational models to analyze solar panel performance at different levels of soiling.聽

鈥淎 better understanding of the data allows us to know exactly how often we need to clean them and whether there are other methods that we can explore that might allow us to clean them strategically,鈥� he said.聽

Isaacs is also thinking about how physical changes to the shape of a solar panel could impact its cleanliness.

鈥淲e know that wind plays a key role in kicking the dust off the panels,鈥� Isaacs said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to understand how the aerodynamics of the wind interact with the dust and be intentional about the way we design our solar panels to enhance that wind and keep the panels cleaner. I want to kind of tease all that out to make sure that we're getting the best possible solution.鈥�

Solar maintenance for the future聽

As the solar industry expands and matures, researchers and experts are beginning to look ahead and think about the costs of aging technology.

Companies investing in large-scale solar stand to benefit from clean panels, according to聽, Richard M. Cyert Professor of Operations Management at the Tepper School of Business, who studies renewable energy supply chains.聽

鈥淭hese are very expensive machines that you want to have very high utilization on, so you can derive value from them,鈥� Scheller-Wolf said. 鈥淚f they become less efficient, you start to lose money.鈥�

To maximize the value of a solar panel, Scheller-Wolf said that upkeep and maintenance is a key factor for investors from the beginning.

鈥淚 view cleaning as part of the holistic investment decision solar farms are thinking about,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ecause the product is so valuable, if I clean it and it makes it more effective, then I鈥檓 getting extra value out of the panels.鈥澛�

But he said the benefits go beyond the financial health of solar farms.

鈥淭he most efficient thing you can do to make something more sustainable is just use it longer,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou want to use your phone, your shoes or your solar panels longer. That鈥檚 better for all of us. And if the maintenance of solar increases the useful lifetime of the project, it increases the sustainability of the project, too, because you don鈥檛 have to replace them as often. That鈥檚 incredibly important.鈥�