Development And Application Of Distributed Photovoltaic Module Cleaning Robot

According to the incentive policies promulgated by the government and the continuous progress of industrial technology,China’s photovoltaic power generation industry has generally developed steadily and orderly and a large number of photovoltaic systems have been put into operation.However,dust accumulation on the photovoltaic modules’ surface may affect the output power substantially.At this stage,the manual cleaning method is still the first choice for most photovoltaic power stations in China due to the lack of convenient and effective way.Nevertheless,this method has many disadvantages such as high labor intensity,high cleaning cost and low efficiency.Therefore,there is a pressing need to propose a scheme with high automation and low cost to replace regular manual cleaning in order to improve the economic benefits of photovoltaic power stations,especially large-scale distributed photovoltaic power plants.Consequently,this project provides a practical and effective way by developing a low-cost,simple-structure and high-efficiency distributed photovoltaic module waterless cleaner for the distributed photovoltaic module cleaning progress.First of all,the basic theory of the photovoltaic power generation system is elaborated,and the damage of the photovoltaic module surface dust to the photovoltaic system is analyzed;Based on this theory,an online monitoring system for the performance of photovoltaic modules has been set up,which is used to monitor and record the performance parameters and meteorological parameters of photovoltaic modules before and after cleaning and establish a method for evaluating the cleaning effect of photovoltaic modules.Secondly,the mechanical structure and control system of the distributed photovoltaic module cleaning robot is designed.Drawing a three-dimensional model of the walking system and the cleaning system;Verifying the strength of key components of the transmission mechanism;Optimizing the cleaning brush material;Analyzing the specific requirements of the robot control system and designing the hardware circuit and control program.Finally,the performance test of the distributed photovoltaic module cleaning robot is carried out.Under various conditions with different dust accumulation time,the cleaning efficiency of the robot is analyzed by comparing the output power curves of the photovoltaic system before and after cleaning.The experimental results indicate that the robot can increase the electrical power of the photovoltaic array by 3.96%,3.99%and 4.01%respectively in 1,3 and 7 days.Calculating the robot cleaning cost,establishing the optimal cleaning cycle model and comparing the two methods of monthly manual cleaning and optimal cleaning cycle to analyze the economic benefits.Taking the 12MW photovoltaic power station as an example,it is concluded that the optimal cleaning cycle of distributed photovoltaic module cleaning robots is 16.5 days and the cumulative number of cleanings is about 22 times per year.Compared with the two former manual cleaning methods,the economic losses caused by dust accumulation in photovoltaic power stations have been reduced by 39.62%and 38.88%,respectively.