Environmental Durability of the Electrodynamic Screen (EDS) Film: A Water-Free Cleaning Process for Solar Collector Surfaces

Solar energy has seen an increased demand and is projected to grow exponentially in the next few decades. An unavoidable obstacle faced by solar power plants is dust deposition on the collector surfaces, blocking the incident sunlight from reaching the photovoltaic cell or mirror. The electrodynamic screen (EDS) film can clean the collectors without water, manual labor or robots. The environmental durability, viability and advantages of the technology are elaborated in this paper. Results of the newly developed hybrid ink are presented with comparison to a commercially available control ink.