Self-Cleaning And Non-Reflective Solar Panels May Soon Be Available -- Research Suggests

Posted on the 26 November 2013 by Derick Ajumni

It may be possible to have high-efficient, self-cleaning solar panels installed commercially in the near future. Why is this important?


 Solar photovoltaic panels have two main issues:
  1. The shiny surface reflects most of the photons of light back into the atmosphere. 
  2. The flat surface is susceptible to dust and small particle debris that reduce efficiency. 
A recent study suggests a solution by adding a nanoscopic relief pattern to the surface of these panels. This makes the panels non-reflective, and may make them non-sticky and self-cleaning.
Credits of this study:
Zuobin Wang of Changchun University of Science and Technology (China), Jin Zhang of Xi'an Technological University (China) and colleagues at Cardiff University (UK), partners of the EU FP7 LaserNaMi project.
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