Session: 4.1.3 - Renewable Energy Systems

Paper Number: 108823

108823 - Nano Fabricated Electrostatic Cleaning Technique for Dust Control for Solar Power Efficiency on Lunar Surface 

Solar-generated energy has been growing rapidly over the past several years. Globally, solar energy generation rose by a record 20% in 2020. The US could get 40% of its electricity from solar by 2035. While solar energy is promising, we still have challenges to overcome in order to maximize solar energy generation. One of the main ways we can harness energy from the sun is through solar farms. Solar farms work as a type of power station. They are places where many solar panels are installed on flat, vacant land. The most common type of panel is called a photovoltaic panel (PV). This panel contain PV cells that absorb sunlight and convert it into consumable electricity. Areas with high levels of solar radiation can produce the most solar energy. In the United States, the Southwest and parts of the West Coast gets the most consistent solar radiation. Unfortunately for solar energy producers, the same sunny, dry climate that makes a location ideal for solar also makes it more susceptible to generating dust. It does not take long for airborne particulates to hinder solar energy production. Research has revealed that it only took a few weeks of dirt, dust, and pollution built up on rooftop solar panels for the panels to generate much less power than when clean. Other studies such as this and this also discuss the negative impact of dust and dirt on panel performance.  There are some new technologies are being developed to help solve the problem of dust and grime in this industry. This includes solar power cleaning robots and self-cleaning solar panels. However, many cleaning technologies are not fully developed yet and can be expensive. Even as more progress is made, dust prevention will always play an important role in maximizing solar power. Regions prone to dust benefit from mitigating the problem from the start. Once created, dust is challenging and often costly to manage. While there are products designed to extract, collect, and clean dust in various industries, it is risky to rely on only reactive solutions. In this study, the student team proposed and developed a nanofabricated film that can generate electrostatic force to rmeove dust from solar panel surface. Specifically, this study investiagted the effectiveness of Copper and Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) electrodes applied by sputtering, and by adding another graphene coating to help protect against UV light and discharge electrostatic particles. This research then serves to rectifies the efficiencies of the proposed approach and test new methods of improving the efficiency compared with other methods. 

Presenting Author: Jiajun Xu University of the District of Columbia

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Jiajun Xu is an Associate Professor and a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). He is the Founder and Director of NASA funded Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM-STAR), DoD funded Advanced Manufacturing laboratory and NSF funded Multiscale Thermal Transport and Energy Conversion Laboratory. His areas of specialization are the following: (I) in-situ characterization and multiscale modeling of energy transport inside nanostructured materials, (II) thermal management and energy conversion using nano-enhanced materials, (III) in-situ monitoring and process optimization of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) based additive manufacturing, and (IV) environment-friendly wastewater treatment using nanoparticle infused mesoporous materials. His research is currently sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture.