Sensor based automatic solar panel cleaning system prototype

In this thesis, a solar panel cleaning system has been realized that recognize the environmental effects such as dustiness that may occur on the surface of the panel in order to increase the efficiency of the solar panels. Once such effects are sensed, an automatic cleaning system begins to work and the negative factors that decrease the efficiency of the panel have been removed from the surface. The system consists of a cleaning mechanism and an electronic circuit that controls this mechanism. The cleaning mechanism include a brush that is able to move among the surface of the panel and a selonoid valf that is connected to the water tank. Ligth dependent resistors (LDRs) are employed to sense the dust occured on the surface of the panels. The analog output signals of LDRs are set as to be the input of a microcontroller and the cleaning system is get run by this way. It is observed from the experiments performed on the produced prototype that, the efficiency of cleaned module is signaficiently higher than the module that is not cleaned. This study is composed of three main parts: design, production and test. In the first part the mechanical and electronical design of the system is realized. In the second part, the manufactured system is introduced. In the final part, the test and the performance results are presented.