Making sure solar panels are spotless

Check out Solarbrush, a unique device to clean solar panels manufactured by a German company of the same name. According to this company press release, SolarBrush is essentially a Roomba (robot-controlled vacuum cleaner) for solar panels. The robot “walks and jumps” across solar panels to clean them in order to make them more efficient. As Ridha Azaiz, the device's developer, puts it, Solarbrushes are “a fleet of robots to fight global warming.”

Why Solarbrush? According to information at www.solarbrush.de, “A dirty solar power system only produces two thirds of its power. Ridha Azaiz's robot brushes sand and dust from solar panels until all the particles fall into the gaps away from each panel and onto the ground. Other robots suck, wash and clean the panels with water and detergent. These devices are difficult to use and require pumps and pipes which are usually more expensive than a small car. However, Solarbrush produced in higher quantities would only cost around $3,000 per robot.”

Ridha Azaiz invented the prototype for Solarbrush when he was just 13 years of age. According to a company press release, “It bothered him that if a solar power system wasn't cleaned, the energy yield of the solar panels rapidly decreased. In 1998, tinkering with his invention led Ridha to the Youth Research Foundation and onto television with his cleaning robot. Solarbrush made its way to Berlin in 2009, then onto California and now into the booming Middle East countries, such as Abu Dhabi.”

SolarBrush is reportedly already seeing strong demand in parts of the world such as South America and the Middle East.