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The only people who think that solar in a desert is a good idea are the people who have never had to clean a solar panel in a desert: https://www.thenationalnew
by konjin 6y ago
The only people who think that solar in a desert is a good idea are the people who have never had to clean a solar panel in a desert: https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/science/dust-can-dramatically-reduce-effectiveness-of-solar-panels-in-arabian-peninsula-us-study-finds-1.664896 https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/science/dust-can-dramati...
- imtringued 6y agoCleaning is already fully automated for solar panels. Are you complaining on behalf of the robots?
- konjin 6y agoLinks please. Specifically for how it's solved for grid scale solar in deserts.
- j-pb 6y agoMore panels actually brings down the cleaning cost. Build them all in a large strip, side by side. Attach a blower on rails at the top. Done. C'mon this isn't rocket science.
- posix_me_less 6y agoIt is not possible to blow off very fine dust. Liquids are needed.
- j-pb 6y agoI've yet to encounter non organic dust that doesn't get blown away by high pressure air. Even if you had 25% losses after a month as the linked article suggests, cleaning them "well enough" once a week should give you enough efficiency to just add 10% more area and call it a day.
- konjin 6y agoRight, so you just need to add high pressure air instead of a liquid to solar installations. How is this an improvement again?
- j-pb 6y agoHigh pressure air can be produced on-board small autonomous vehicles that travel along the solar installations for weeks at a time, themselves powered by solar energy, without any need to refuel or pick up resources like water.
- tim333 6y agoI'd imagine something like the wash wipe on car windscreens solves the same problem.
- akvadrako 6y agoThe other problem with solar in the desert is the panels are black. If you have enough to make a difference in energy production you'll also cause a significant amount of warming. https://theconversation.com/solar-panels-in-sahara-could-boost-renewable-energy-but-damage-the-global-climate-heres-why-153992 https://theconversation.com/solar-panels-in-sahara-could-boo...
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoKeep in mind that 'solar' doesn't have to be PV, but it can also be mirrors heating up an oil pipe. Should be less of an issue then. Or a combination of the two, where the heat captured by the solar panels is used to generate additional power. I'm pretty sure PV panels don't work well in high temperatures, and dark surfaces in the sahara will likely get up to plastic-melty temperatures real quick.