petemoss
Member
As with any solar panels, they get bird droppings on them. Our installer recommended that we clean the panels regularly. Apparently if the bird droppings are left on the panels, then the blocking of light to that cell or cells, will damage the cells.
Can someone verify this please ?
petemoss
Member
There are plenty of articles in regards to hard shading or soft shading. The resolve was to clean the panels. But as the installer suggested there can be permanent damage, kept looking and the article at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032116000745
3.1. Partial shading of PV module by a soil patch
In addition to energy reduction, some soil patches such as leaves, bird droppings and dirt patches that block some cells of a PV module but not the whole, have a severe effect on PV modules. Fig. 5 shows a PV module consisting of 10 cells and with one cell shaded and unable to produce any current. As the figure shows, in this condition the shaded cell acts as a resistance to current generated from the other cells. This causes the shaded cell to heat up and leads to a hot spot that can eventually damage the module [54,55].
The information on the solar quotes blog generally seems to be pretty good.
It was one of my main sources of information before getting solar
There is a detailed post on panel cleaning at https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/solar-panel-cleaning/
tom
Member
I reckon I get about a 10% increase in output when I clean. My panels are only 2 degrees off flat, so the base, where the water pools, get's very dirty. And there's always a few panels with big bird droppings.
I guess in theory if I cleaned them every day, I could get infinite output ....
petemoss
Member
tom said:
I reckon I get about a 10% increase in output when I clean. My panels are only 2 degrees off flat, so the base, where the water pools, get's very dirty. And there's always a few panels with big bird droppings.I guess in theory if I cleaned them every day, I could get infinite output ....
Thanks Tom. Having just watched 2 magpies this morning drop huge amounts on 2 panels,and then getting up and cleaning them (the panels, not the magpies, ..lol ) reminded me of the need to have some form of deterrent.
Bird repellers - Some are turned on all the time, and some are only turned on by a motion sensor. Battery powered and solar powered. It seems the pulse is either sonic or ultrasonic.
Has anyone used bird repellers ?
wlb
Member
Are the panels flat enough to allow the birds to stand on the glass, or do they only stand along the top edge of the array?
If the latter, you could fit bird spikes.
You could also try that nano particle spray coating that makes window glass and shower screens self-cleaning.
I've got bird spikes to fit to mine when the new arrays go up after summer.
30 odd years ago, I used to know the guy who developed the nano coating. He had an off-grid house and tracked solar panels way back in the early '80s. I think he was an ATA member too, because Melbourne branch organized a visit to his house about 16 or 17 years ago.
Lance
Key Master
Seem to be a couple of these coatings at least, this mob have one specifically for PV panels: http://www.nanoman.com.au/solarcoat.html but also https://www.nanovations.com.au/nano-glass-coating.htm
I have no idea how well these work, anyone used either?
wlb
Member
This is where it all started. http://www.micronisers.com/about-us/
One of the founders of the company was Michael Bos. I'm fairly sure he was an ATA member when he lived off-grid in Pearcedale in the '80s.
