International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET) ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.177 Volume 7 Issue XI, Nov 2019- Available at www.ijraset.com 360 © IJRASET: All Rights are Reserved A Review on Solar Panel Cleaning Techniques and Systems Ms. Megha S. Rane 1 , Prof. Kiran A. Dongare 2 , Prof. M.O. Sharma 3 , Pravin S. Rane 4 1, 3 Pankaj Laddhad Institute of Technology & Management Studies, Buldana 2 Ram Meghe College of Engineering & Management, Bandera, Amravati 4 G.H. Raisoni College of Engineering Nagpur Abstract: Solar energy usage has been increasing rapidly owing to the awareness among people regarding the limited availability of non-renewable energy resources like coal, wood, petrol etc. The technological advancements have facilitated the use of solar panels in domestic as well as industrial places. Rural areas which are yet to have proper electricity connections have now started to opt for solar panel installations and use of solar panels on streetlights as well. Thus it becomes crucial to study the causes of reduction in efficiency of solar panels. The main factor was the inability of system to adapt with sun movements and for which solar tracking systems were installed with solar panels. Another problem that has raised slight concerns is the accumulation of dusts on solar panels. It has been observed that the efficiency of system reduces by around 23-28% approximately due to accumulation of dust and dirt on these solar panels. This paper presents a study on techniques employed to clean these solar panels and increase the efficiency of the system. I. INTRODUCTION Solar energy is absorbed by the solar panels to generate electricity through it. The solar panels come in different watt ratings .Dust accumulation takes place due to many environmental factors but the main focus of this paper is to emphasize on the cleaning techniques that are in use at present or have been developed for this purpose. The impact of dust accumulation has been stated that it reduces the efficiency by 23-28% [1].The dust accumulation becomes a barrier for energy absorption. Although earlier its impact on efficiency was not considered but studies have shown that over the time if left neglected it shall further decrease the efficiency. The cleaning of solar panels is not an easy task because generally they are mounted on terrace and heighted areas. Many techniques have been adopted to clean the solar panels and they can be can be broadly classified into three categories A. Manual Cleaning Techniques B. Semi-Automatic cleaning techniques C. Automatic Cleaning Techniques The above stated techniques have their own listed advantages and disadvantages. This paper is divided into two sections where section I emphasizes the technologies and section II focuses on the relevant works done in the mentioned category. Fig 1. Basic Working of Photo-voltaic cell