Most O&M directors or solar panel cleaners begin their quest for finding the ideal machinery by looking for the most productive machine in the marketplace. This is a very valid beginning however solar panel cleaning has many complexities and setup time and distance between installations is one of the biggest challenges when trying to do the job. 

Common Mistakes

• Asking the manufacturer of the machinery “How many panels per day can the machine do”? Productivity is ideally measured by square footage or similar. This is a direct relationship between brush width and array width. 
• Assuming the answer the manufacturer gives you is truthful. 
• Assuming you can be performing impeccably 24 x 7. The distance between sites often conditions your crew to clean one site per day in the case of C&I installations.
• Assuming that machinery productivity impacts the project more than logistical efficiency. Experience has shown that logistics are a dominating factor in the success of a project.
  • Distance to project sites is a bigger factor than machine productivity
  • Setup and Logistics are a bigger factor in many situations (not all) than machine productivity
• Assuming water filtration is done flawlessly and without delays.
• Assuming your crew is 100% productive
• Understanding that weather may impact your productivity more than machine productivity. If it is raining, you cannot clean.
• Assuming that the logistical part of the business is easy

How to approach choosing the best solar panel cleaning machinery?