SBIR Phase II: Increasing energy yield from dusty solar panels with a new generation of an electrostatic self-cleaning technology

The broader impact and commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will generate numerous positive societal outcomes by increasing the economic competitiveness of the United States through the development of innovation in solar energy and promoting energy independence. Worldwide, the tremendous growth of large utility-scale solar power plants in desert-like regions has put extreme pressure on local water resources for cleaning dust from solar panels. A typical solar power plant of 100 megawatts can power 42,000 homes. Over its 25-year life, this power plant requires 38 million gallons of potable water, transported by 4750 tanker trucks, and incurs $22 million in cleaning costs (without even factoring in 25 years of inflation). Cleaning over one-quarter of a million dusty solar panels multiple times a year would still result in a loss of $51 million in energy sales due to this soiling from dust. Reducing these losses and avoiding all these costs has a great impact on lowering the cost of our electricity for homes, electric vehicles, and the growing electrification of society. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to lower the cost of solar electricity, improve the reliability and predictability of solar power plants, and, importantly, eliminate the use of water in the cleaning of dusty solar panels in these desert-like regions. To address technological and scientific challenges related to this new technology, the research’s efforts will include a combination of experiments and modeling to increase the size of prototypes and verify their performance in laboratory and field conditions. The outcomes of these efforts will result in improved efficiency, lower cost, and scalability of this new approach. Our industrial partners will guide the commercialization efforts to facilitate wide adoption of this technology by the solar industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.