Ecoppia E4
Waterless robotic brush that travels along a row of solar modules each night to remove desert dust, powered by its own solar panel.
| Maker | Ecoppia |
|---|---|
| Country | Israel |
| Status | In production |
| Actuation | Wheeled brush unit that travels along the module row on the panel frame |
| Power | Onboard solar panel and battery, with no water and no external supply |
| Sensors | Position and edge sensors with cloud connectivity for scheduling and reporting |
| Autonomy | Cleans automatically on a nightly schedule under cloud control, with no operator on site |
The E4 is a slim robot that rides along the frame of a solar module row, sweeping a microfibre brush across the glass to lift dust without water. Each unit carries its own solar panel and battery, so it needs no external power or plumbing, and cleans on a nightly schedule set from a cloud platform. Removing dust recovers energy yield that would otherwise be lost, which matters most in arid high dust regions. It works on utility scale photovoltaic plants.
Of note
- Contracted to clean a 400 megawatt Azure Power hybrid solar site in India.
- Selected for about 427 megawatts of Fortum solar plants in India.
- The later H4 model adds a hybrid arm that moves the cleaning unit between module rows.
Maker: www.ecoppia.com