Clean Solar Solutions have this week signed a 2 year contract with German inverter giant SMA for the annual cleaning of 110,000 solar panels on a site near Wellingborough.
The solar panels are spread across 2 fields, with 16.3MW in one field and 17.5MW in another field. The EPC contractor Bejulo has assigned SMA the O&M on the sites and Clean Solar Solutions have been contracted to carry out the cleaning of the modules. The first clean will be carried out in July.
Steve Williams, M.D. of Clean Solar Solutions commented, “It is certainly an exciting time for us. We believe that this will be the largest solar panel cleaning undertaking in the UK to date. It has taken us exactly 2 years to clean 160,000 panels on ground mounted and roof mounted projects all over the UK. We aim to clean this 110,000 panel site in less than 3 weeks! We know it is an ambitious target, but we are very confident that we will deliver. We have made great strides over the last 2 years which allows us to now tackle projects of size within a short time-frame.”
Clean Solar Solutions were contacted by SMA direct from Germany having heard about their experience and strong reputation in the UK market. Negotiations have been speedy with first contact being made between SMA and Clean Solar Solutions less than 3 months ago.
The site began construction in November 2014 and was commissioned in March 2015. It will look to generate enough clean electricity for approximately 7,700 households per year and reduce emissions by about 18,500 tons per year.
Having been only been commissioned 3 months ago, why does the site need cleaning so soon? The installation process creates a lot of dust and because it was a winter install, mud has also been splattered on to some modules. The access roads are made from tons and tons of stone. The laying of the stone also creates dust. Shading of any kind be it dust accumulation, bird droppings or mud spatters, inhibits output. Less output means less money generated by the array, so having clean modules is very important.
Steve Williams commented, “Initial cleans of sites once installed are essential. Panels can be very dirty when the trucks and workers finally leave site. Thankfully, we have seen a shift in the industry’s attitude towards cleaning away from the idea of self-cleaning modules and towards regular cleaning. However, a further change needs to happen in our opinion. People tend to be stuck on the idea of frequency of cleans in time i.e. 6 or 12 monthly. Really, how often you get your solar panels cleans should be a financial decision, rather than a time-based decision.
As soon as the financial increase in output from cleaning covers the cost of the clean, it makes financial sense to get the solar panels cleaned. For some sites this is annually, in certain instances that we have come across such as sites near waste sites, this can be as frequently as 2 monthly. Either way, regular cleaning is a necessity.”
Clean Solar Solutions also run the UK’s only dedicated solar panel cleaning training course, focussing heavily on the health and safety issues associated with this new industry.
