Problems with heavy soiling in Ontario, CA
Problems with heavy soiling in Ontario, CA
Mar 20, 2013
We have been cleaning a smaller commercial set up for a little over a year now in Ontario California and we have run into some interesting situations. The first one is the proximity to a dairy farm. In southern Ontario much of the land is currently being used for farming, while this will probable change to residence and industrial buildings in the future right now it creates a problem if you own solar panels.
The problem it a heavy soiling of the panels caused by the cows constantly kicking up the dust, the chemicals used by the farmers, and the machinery used on the farms. All these factors create a thick layer of dirt on the panels quickly. How quickly? We this customer has us clean the panels every 3 months and after the 3 months the panels are very heavily soiled, bringing the production down by a estimated 20-30%.
In the picture above you will see an example of the top 3 rows being cleaned (last summer). The panels where cleaned 3 month previously so you can see there is a large amount of soiling in a short period of time.
We have a residential customer that lives not very close to the location that has us come every month in the summer months and the panels are about as dirty as 6 months worth of soiling in northern Ontario.
What is the solution for this? Well as there are plans to change most of the farms into buildings in the future you might not have to deal with this problem in a few years. The only real solution in the mean time is having the panels cleaned regularly. How regularly depends on the location of your solar panels and the proximity to the farms. Both the commercial and the residential example mentioned here are located right on a farm. You have to weigh the cost of the cleaning up with the savings. If you have the panels cleaned every 2 weeks it is likely you will not be saving enough to cover the cost of cleaning but if you have them cleaned every 2 months you are very likely to save more money than the cost of cleaning and lengthen the life span of the panels.
One interesting fact about Ontario is in the 1900's the city was attracting farmers to the area so in order to encourage more farmers a water fountain was installed at the railway station to show that there was an "abundance" of water in Ontario. The fountain was turned on when a passenger train was approaching and turned off again after the train left the station- a great and ironic piece of marketing/advertising for back then.
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