(Times of Israel) David Shamah - This week the Kibbutz Ketura solar park, jointly owned by Siemens AG and Israel's Arava Power, became the world's first self-cleaning solar energy production facility. Each night, the 20-acre facility is cleaned by 100 Israeli-made robots, which brush and clean the hundreds of solar panels. Besides sun, deserts have lots of dust, and that dust can reduce a solar panel's efficiency by as much as 35%. The robots use microfibers and air to push the accumulated dirt off the panels without using scarce water.
2014-03-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive