Cleaning Solar Panels - Will it make much difference?

Nifty

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This was interesting...

I was looking at my data on my solar panels and I kept seeing this one panel consistently under-performing compared to the rest.

upload_2015-4-30_19-50-24.png


I of course know that different panels have different efficiencies from during manufacturing, but this one had never been a problem before.

So, for a few days I've been meaning to go outside and take a look at the panel to see what I could find, and I saw this:


dirty-solar-panels.jpg




So, it looks like when I cleaned my panels a few months ago, I didn't do a very thorough job on this one panel, and it's obviously making a difference! You can see the darker areas at the top of the middle panel where the dirt is causing the panel to be less shiny.
 

Britesea

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Interesting. But it definitely makes sense that a solar panel not receiving as much solar energy as its neighbors would not work as well
 

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