Re cleaning, they have a cute little robot that you can see on this page: https://www.erthos.com/energyservices It's also visible in the photo in the article.
I wonder what happens after a major rain though. I suppose the panels are weatherproof. But they lie directly on the ground, and I did not notice any mention of a drainage system. The panels will eventually sag under load from rainwater, preventing it from flowing off them.
They mention that their installation can withstand a hurricane. I understand how it works for the wind load, but every hurricane I witnessed brought a lot of rain.
EDIT: Apparently they embrace flooding, and say that their panels and connectors can withstand being submerged in water. That's the spirit.
The image also seems to show water damage in the corner of the closest panel.
At a guess, they target areas without heavy rainfall, and fast draining soils. I didn’t see any drainage works in the video https://vimeo.com/556421759, nor did my google-fu help me find anything where they address the issue.
How do the installations perform in the rain and snow? “Our hydrology report proves that an Erthos plant is almost the same as native soils with respect to accumulated water depth and velocity in rainstorms. All of our designs include professional civil design that includes water runoff management and containment basins as per the jurisdiction’s application of building code and other local requirements.”
What about flooding? “The glass/ glass modules and the connectors we specify are all rated for submersion, so flooding is not a catastrophic event in case it does occur.”
Blemishes on solar panels aren't necessarily bad or have a huge effect on generation or durability. These could also be previously used panels in the image, which are often sold at enough of a discount to offset the loss in power generation.
Thanks for posting that! Made me realize that when all the panels are laid over a huge area in essentially the same plane that it must be so much easier and cheaper to clean. Just put this robot on it and let it go, roomba-style (OK, not exactly roomba-style of going over the same spot 50 times, but you get the idea). Seems like it would be a lot cheaper than what would be needed to keep rack-mounted systems clean.
maybe use a little potassium carbonate to convert the uric acid in the bird shit to dipotassium urate, thus increasing its water-solubility 300×, and follow up with a strong buffer that's mildly acidic like monopotassium phosphate to prevent any stray residues from the solution from causing alkali corrosion of the glass when it dries
probably there are a lot of possibilities you haven't tried on your windshield yet
My point only concerned the robot. Other solar installations won't have a tiny self-driving Zamboni that's ineffective at cleaning bird poo and is bound to be stolen. They use renewable and cost-effective elbow grease instead.
The solution here seems to create a zone that is completely inhospitable to the ecosystem that should exist in that spot. In the picture in the article, the bird poop will be highly concentrated in the forest area that is nearby. While there will be some birds that fly over this dead zone, I bet the droppings will be minimal.
Edit: The article mentions a 100 MW installation. At 2.5 acres per MW, that is 40 acres or 0.25 miles x 0.25 miles. While there will certainly be some service roads, no matter what the ecosystem was before, it will be covered with something that doesn't support plant material, insects, etc. that may be consumed directly by birds or the small animals upon which birds prey. Birds will find a more hospitable place to poop.
I can't see how bird poo could be a problem here: there's no food, nesting site, nor high spot to hang out anywhere near it. Theft could be a problem, though I'd assume they'd have some sort of protection hidden on it.
It appears too small to have enough mass to use gravity to be able to do a thing with dried guano. Also, because it has wheels, it gives me the impression that it moves along and does whatever cleaning its capable of as it goes rather than lingering anywhere to thoroughly clean one spot.
> they could have a pressure washer inside that thing
Thanks, I was wondering how they were going to keep it clean, and the linked article doesn't have the word "clean" in it at all, so it could be improved by discussing more about that. I also see now that the little robot is in the pic in the linked article too.
