When, if ever, have you cleaned the solar panels on your roof? I did some research and discovered that Valley residents haven’t cleaned their photovoltaic solar panels in months, if ever. The combined wasted total potential energy losses must be huge.
I recently spoke with a former Valley resident who owned property in Diamond Valley with nine panels, set on ground-mounted posts and frames. He did not set the panels on his roof because roof mounting would have required paying an engineer to determine if such loading was possible. Therefore, he chose the easier ground-mounting option to save on engineering costs. He also trenched and installed the one-inch conduit between the panel array and the switch box near the Edison meter.
Because of the way the panels were installed, he found it easy to keep them clean with regular attention once a month. After the first few cleanings, involving rinsing, soft mop swabbing, and a final rinse before sunrise, he started to note the approximate improvement in output. The post-cleaning output usually rebounded by approximately 10 percent.
During a drive along Domenigoni Parkway, the solar array owner noted that almost all solar panels on most houses looked “different,” and one person in the car remarked that they were probably pool heating panels. After some serious questioning of those who know about such technicalities, I discovered that most panels are indeed crusted with dust and dirt, and might be losing between 10 and 15 percent efficiency. Something that confirmed the problem of severe dirt on panels was one panel on a house with a palm tree that had its leaves sweeping about half of the panel. One half of the panel was clean, shiny, and dark in color, but above the swept area, the panel had the same beige, dirty look observed on solar panels throughout the San Jacinto Valley.
How much power is being lost is still up for discussion or examination. Nevertheless, if we are losing as much as 15 percent of our energy because of dirty panels, it’s like throwing good money and significant power away.
I would like to thank Lance Johannsen, a native son, and a retired EMWD civil engineer, for bringing this matter to my attention. Reporters sometimes get more done than our politicos.
So, folks, house-cleaning should also include cleaning your expensive solar panels periodically. Remember one ironclad rule about such situations: We don’t always know the good we have until inactivity costs us the day.
Just sayin’.
