Cleaning Solar Panels with Minimal Water
Q. How to clean installed solar panels using minimum amounts of water.
A. For field cleaning of solar modules I recommend using Liquinox detergent. This is a concentrate that would be used at a 1% solution (1.25 oz/gal, or 10 mL/L). Liquinox is not harmful to discharge onto the ground in an agricultural setting.
Cleaner for Solar Wash System
Q. We are working on a new system designed to clean large solar arrays. We would like to develop a cleaner for our particular use in our solar wash system that produces an easy to maintain surface to keep module output at a maximum.
A. Installed solar arrays and panels operate at peak efficiency when they are clean. Dirt, grime, bird droppings and dust can degrade the performance of solar panels. To remove residues, use a 0.5 – 1% solution of Liquinox neutral range detergent (5 -10 ml/L or 0.65 – 1.25 oz/gallon).
Extra Foam Please?
Q: Since foaming is so critical to COP methods, should operators be agitating the solution(s) to produce foam before and during manual cleanings?
A: Mechanical energy, agitation, and plain old elbow grease, are vital weapons in cleaning and Clean-Out-Of-Place applications. So we would recommend that wherever possible, mechanical energy be applied to remove unwanted residues from the surface we are trying to clean. This will
How to: Reduce Cleaning Time
Q. What can we do to reduce cleaning time? We want to be as optimal and thorough in our cleaning as possible.
A. At Alconox Inc we recognize that manual cleaning may take minutes, spray cleaning seconds, and soaking may take hours, possibly overnight, to achieve comparable cleanliness. Read more….
Defining Free Rinsing Detergent
A non-free rinsing cleaner might contain fragrances that were designed to deposit and leave a fresh scent, or it might contain corrosion inhibitors that are designed to deposit and leave behind an anti-corrosion film.
Alconox, Inc, cleaners are free rinsing detergents and do not leave deposits on substrates after rinsing.