Solar Panels That Clean Themselves

I have a solar setup. I’m fortunate that cleaning my panels is a matter of scrubbing them or taking my boat out when it’s raining. The article mentions the huge solar installations in the deserts. This is the wrong approach and is wasteful. Society needs more solar pv generation where it’s being used. Lamp posts and stuff are a great example. Thinking about providing energy and thinking about huge power plants is old school coal/oil thinking. The sum of many smaller installations on roofs, window awnings, bus stops, walkways, train stations, schools, pretty much any building needs a solar power setup to sustain its needs. The bigger the building, the bigger the setup. Forget building huge farms in the desert. Build huge farms on the rooftops and save on transporting current. Just my observation. Energy companies don’t really care for energy independence. Why would they? It’s not in their interest.

Interesting situation with the example of the Sahara sand being used to experiment on the panels

These days it is quite common to find solar panels on lamp posts of well being areas near the Sahara and elsewhere in the world

My big question is how well might these patterned panels handle erosion... It would be no fun to the investors if one, two light or medium sandstorms after installation then the pattern becomes eroded and they ended up paying a +15% premium or wherever it ends up being for fancy laser etched solar panels

Ofc that edge case aside.... This will be very wonderful on most of the planet

Using electrostatics is interesting.

Reminds me of the old HP plotters from decades ago. You put a sheet of paper in them and pressed the HOLD button, and it would electrostatically adhere the paper to the plotter so the plotter pen wouldn't move the paper. sort of magical.

Of course, here "clean themselves" means

To activate the system, a simple electrode passes just above the solar panel’s surface, imparting an electrical charge to the dust particles, which are then repelled by a charge applied to the panel itself. The system can be operated automatically using a simple electric motor and guide rails along the side of the panel.

So it's not exactly the cells cleaning themselves, imo. I wonder how well blowing (lightly) compressed air would work in comparison, since you're already sweeping past all the cells that sounds simpler.

Damn I just started thinking about this problem and this shows up. I was only thinking about dust (etc) though; bird droppings is a whole other level of mess. Maybe you can run a sprinkler up there?