Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 11th April 2024 Issue no. 1109
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Ecoppia robotic solar panel cleaning systems provide water-free solution at massive plant
Ecoppia, the developer of robotic, water-free photovoltaic solar panel cleaning solutions, announced this week the completion of deployment of hundreds of its automated systems in the 2,255MW Bhadla Solar Park in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in a site developed by Engie Solar India.
Located in a vast desert area, Bhadla Solar Park is prone to frequent dust storms, which can reduce energy generation by as much as 40% in a matter of minutes. Cloud-based and remotely managed and controlled, Ecoppia's technology removes dust from panels on a daily basis to ensure peak output, even in the toughest desert conditions, allowing solar sites to peak perform with minimal costs and human intervention.
Ecoppia tells us its systems provide the only solution able to maintain peak energy production and restore panels post-storm in just hours - without water or external electricity consumption. With the deployment of Ecoppia across its site, Engie is expected to save over 1.5 billion of litres of water, and reduce its operating expenses drastically.
"We expect to harness Ecoppia's revolutionary cleaning system to dramatically raise output and lower costs," said an Engie Solar India spokesperson. "This type of technological breakthrough not only benefits our own business interests, but the solar energy sector as a whole.
"We are proud to be one of the world's first solar energy providers to adopt Ecoppia's cutting-edge, autonomous robotic panel cleaning paradigm".
Continuing Ecoppia's commitment to cooperation with large multinational energy conglomerates and its specific focus on the Indian market, the company is expected to top 1GW of deployments in Bahdla Park alone, and over 2GW across India.
Cleaning over 200 million solar panels to date, using experience gained working with leading energy conglomerates such as Adani Power, SunEdison and NTPC, Ecoppia cooperated closely with Engie throughout the design and deployment process to maximise rollout efficiency and optimise return on investment.
22nd February 2018