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From Chula Vista and San Diego to Carlsbad and Beyond, Shine Up Solar is the company of choice among many here in San Diego County

Solar Panel Cleaning Coachella WWTP

Friday, February 6, 2015

Coachella Waste Water Treatment Plant Solar Cleaning

Southern California Solar Panel Cleaning

Here are some amazing pictures from the commercial solar panel cleaning at the Coachella Waste Water Treatment Plant. The smell was horrible. Imagine about fifteen square leech ponds about 50 yards by 50 yards holding tons and tons of toilet water with human waste in it. As the sun beats on the ponds the water evaporates, then the particles and dust stick to these amazing panels. We have to clean these commercial solar panels once every three months. This is a dirty job, but Shine Up Solar is here to get the job done, on time and on budget! These are very unique commercial solar panels.

What Type of Commercial Solar Panels are These?

Instead of a normal PV silicon water that is made of multicrystaline which is what 90% of the installations in the nation are. Also, referred to as polycrystalline it is less expensive and converts a little less electricity from the sun light. However, because of the lower cost it is not economical to use monocrystaline in most cases. Monocrystaline is more productive, and was used in these panels at Coachella WWTP. In order to try and make monocrystaline work the design of these panels uses small two by two inch squares of highly efficient mono silicon and has them suspended above a small parabolic mirror. The mirror refracts the sun light towards the small mono wafer. This reduces the amount of mono silicon needed.

What is the problem with these solar panels?

These wafer/mirror combo are then covered with tempered glass like a car windshield. As the glass gets covered in poop evaporated dust it blocks the sun and decreases the production of the solar panels. However, this design was not competitive in the market with the poly/multi silicon wafer dropping in cost so dramatically over the past two years. If you were looking to buy panels like these because they are pretty, good luck because they don't make them anymore they are a solar dinosaur just like Solyndra.

Take a Look at some project images below