Self-sustained surface cleaning of solar energy systems

世界正在逐步过渡到分布式和可再生能源发电，以克服人为的气候变化。成功的技术之一是利用太阳能，无论是直接转换为电能(光伏)还是热能，以便能够与水、石油或氢等能量载体一起储存。世界上年全球辐射高(&gt；2,100千瓦时/平方米)的地区(如非洲和中东)，在清洁能源发电和相关经济的蓬勃发展方面潜力巨大，不幸的是，它们是干旱气候，降雨量很少，污染物可以迅速积累在表面，降低任何规模的已部署系统的性能。在这种情况下，从经济和环境的角度来看，用“水和刷子”进行人工维护都不是一个可行的选择。此外，在这些地区，建筑集成光伏应用，加上清洁的玻璃，可以发电，同时有效地减少建筑围护结构内的热量，减少空调机组的负荷。该项目的目的是开发一种自动化、自我维持、低能耗的清洁系统，以使太阳能系统能够连续运行。该项目将是跨学科的，将涵盖环境测试、CFD建模、使用充足的透明地球和低成本材料制造建筑，以及设计流体输送和连续运营的自动化等领域。

The world is progressively transitioning to a distributed and renewable energy generation to overcome manmade climate change. One of the successful technologies is through the use of solar energy whether for direct conversion into electricity (photovoltaic) or thermal energy to enable storing with energy vectors such as water, oil or hydrogen. Regions of the world with high (>2,100 kWh/m2) annual global irradiation (e.g. Africa and Middle East), with great potential for having a boom in clean growth of energy generation and relating economy, are unfortunately arid climate with little rainfall where contaminants can quickly accumulate on surfaces and reduce the performance of deployed system of any scale. In these conditions, manual maintenance with "water and brush" are not a viable option from both economical and environmental viewpoints. Furthermore, building integrated PV applications in these regions, with cleaned glazing, can generate electricity combined with efficient reduction of heat within the building envelope, reducing the load on air conditioning units. The aim of this project is to develop an automated self-sustain, low energy cleaning system to enable continuous operation of solar energy systems. The project will be interdisciplinary in nature and will encompass areas such as environmental testing, CFD modelling, fabricating architectures using transparent earth abundant and low cost materials and designing the delivery of fluid and automation for continuous operation.