Nanotexturing as a method to reduce dust accumulation on solar panels

Many countries experience dusty weather year- round. This type of weather is a major challenge for collecting solar energy. Specifically, dust buildup reduces solar panel electricity output by 20 to 50%. Rather than changing the fundamentals of how solar panels are made, an easier way to modify the surface energy of solar panels could be to create nanotextures on the solar panel itself. As water and dust are both polar substances, we hypothesized that a hydrophobic solar panel surface would repel not only water, but dust and dirt as well, to increase solar energy capture. For this study, we first used a mathematical equation to predict the optimal surface nano-roughness on solar panels to reduce dirt accumulation by creating a hydrophobic surface. We found that a surface roughness of 205 and 445 nm for model solar panel silicone and glass surfaces, respectively, would decrease dirt accumulation. Our results further showed the least amount of dirt accumulation when soaking glass and silicone in potassium hydroxide (KOH, a base which creates a nanotexture and changes the energy of surfaces) for 13 and 10 minutes, respectively. Although requiring more studies to determine the specifics of which basic chemical is optimal and the best treatment time with that chemical to create hydrophobic surfaces on different solar panel chemistries, our study suggests that solar panels can be easily treated with KOH to create a nanotextured surface decreasing dirt and dust accumulation to optimize the adsorption of light by photovoltaic cells for greater solar energy.