PV asset managers, O&M suppliers, and undertaking homeowners have spoken: and their perspective demonstrates what will be anticipated within the adoption of robotic cleansing within the close to future. The outcomes additionally present new insights into how insiders really feel about present market choices and make clear what components actually matter within the adoption technique of photo voltaic robotic cleansing.
Addressing utility scale
Business insiders clearly perceive that the cleansing of utility-scale photo voltaic websites is just sustainable with automation and that its software shouldn’t be a lot an “if” as a “when.” Plainly lots of as we speak’s large-scale photo voltaic websites are in some stage of adopting automation, whether or not that be full or partial.
Moreover, one of many high concerns for selecting a robotic cleansing resolution is its means to wash hundreds of modules effectively. Some 25% of the survey’s members named the power to wash a lot of modules as one of many high three options they anticipate from an automatic cleansing system. With photo voltaic website capacities reaching lots of, and even hundreds of megawatts, cleansing modules is not sustainable with guide labor, both bodily or financially. With out automation, asset homeowners are actually – and figuratively – leaving their panels within the mud.
Sloping terrain
No two photo voltaic parks are the identical and when tasks are located in distant and uneven desert terrain, website builders should customise buildings to cater for distinctive installations. When selecting to optimize a website with robotic cleansing, it must be with a expertise that doesn’t compromise the construction’s integrity. One of many key components website homeowners and managers are in search of is compatibility with a wide range of module varieties and trackers whereas additionally overcoming sloping terrain and difficult land buildings. The flexibility to beat difficult buildings and sloping terrain was the highest technical requirement cited by survey members, with greater than 62% naming it as one of many high three considerations concerning robotic cleansing expertise.
“Ecoppia has taken its decade of expertise, and cleansing over 7 billion modules, to create a wide range of strong robotic options to work for various terrains and module layouts and we analyze tens of hundreds of robots’ each day operations in differing environments and situations,” says Jean Scemama, the CEO of Ecoppia. “This permits us to customise our new options and developments to clients’ varied website wants. We’re proud to supply hybrid options for websites with a wide range of row lengths, buildings, and terrains – similar to our newest undertaking with Azure Energy in India. Our groups preserve growing new options to cater to O&M’s continuously altering wants and the rising complexity in website design.”
Security and reliability
The survey outcomes point out that high quality of cleansing is on the forefront of minds on the subject of robotics, with 65% of members naming it as a high issue influencing which robotics to decide on. Product reliability; worth and guarantee; and repair have been named among the many high three technical traits that builders take into account when selecting to automate cleansing, making up 54%, 47%, and 44% of responses, respectively. Given the lengthy life cycle of photo voltaic tasks, lasting as much as 25 years, it’s clear that long run security is of the utmost significance.
With guide cleansing, a photo voltaic module can solely be cleaned a handful of instances a 12 months and, subsequently, there are main dangers similar to harm to the PV panel’s anti-reflective coating attributable to brush cleansing, which decreases energy output. Utilizing robotic cleansing diminishes the impression of unpredictable components similar to mud storms or heavy soiling, by cleansing website panels each day versus the lowered cleansing frequency that guide processes allow.
Equally, cleansing robots themselves should be extremely dependable as a result of the applying of automated cleansing is meant to reinforce productiveness. Greater than 50% of survey respondents named security as one of many high three technical traits they anticipated of a cleansing resolution.
Security precedence
Security additionally applies to the manufacturing of robotic cleansing techniques themselves. Suppliers want to incorporate thorough high quality assurance and testing of temperature endurance, wind resistance, and UV resistance to examine that high quality is always embedded within the robotic manufacturing course of. With the automated cleansing itself, there are security concerns and the robots should not trigger harm to modules, even when it’s doubtlessly unseen harm, similar to to module coatings.
Contemplating a swap to robotics additionally entails a shift from taking a look at cleansing as an ad-hoc service, to participating in a long run partnership with a supplier which won’t solely be offering tools but in addition upkeep providers for the lifespan of a PV undertaking. Indicative of this, is that 44% of respondents chosen product warranties and repair all through a robotic cleansing system’s lifetime as a top-three issue when choosing a vendor.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of the surveyed respondents that didn’t use robotics take into account cleansing as a service, realizing it facilitates optimum manufacturing. Due to this fact, investing in automated cleansing is actually including one other O&M asset to the positioning. Guaranteeing the standard of the answer requires greater than belief and certification with respected our bodies goes a protracted solution to verifying that the robotic resolution into account has been fitted with high quality in addition to sturdy elements which are constructed for excessive climate situations and longevity.
LCOE over preliminary price
The price of robotic cleansing is a significant concern. Nevertheless, the significance of price diminished amongst respondents who had expertise with automation, and subsequently have developed an appreciation of its worth. Some 47% of survey members who had not deployed robotic cleansing indicated that worth is their high constraint. Moreover, these respondents additionally named worth amongst their high components when selecting a supplier. As soon as photo voltaic website managers implement robotics, nonetheless, the elevated worth and lowered levelized price of power (LCOE) it brings to their each day operations is more likely to supersede their considerations about price.
The dynamic of worth over price, amongst these with an expertise with robotic cleansing, was borne out within the survey ends in different methods. For many who have already been utilizing robotic cleansing options, price was not a high concern. When requested for his or her high three influencing components when selecting robotics, worth was ranked sixth out of eight decisions, rating beneath the standard of cleansing, product reliability, guarantee and repair all through a undertaking’s lifespan, certifications by module suppliers, and a neighborhood group presence for O&M provision.
Considerations eliminated
Plainly for corporations which are at present utilizing guide cleansing options, any considerations about their present cleansing technique principally relate to the pricing of the providers, making up 21% of their responses. Their different considerations largely thought-about the managerial overhead that robotic cleansing would require, and guaranteeing the cleansing high quality is excessive. These have been named as the 2 different high disadvantages, making up 20% and 17% of the responses, respectively.
In keeping with Scemama, the chance of harm posed by low-cost, low-quality robotic cleansing also needs to be thought-about. “There are photo voltaic tasks the place low-cost automated options have been put in and needed to be eliminated as a result of poor efficiency, excessive upkeep prices, and even harm they brought on to the modules,” he stated. “Our robots have been designed to offer steady and dependable cleansing for 25 years, along with our guarantee and repair all through a undertaking’s lifespan.”
A mindset targeted on worth hinders the power to see the lifetime financial savings robotic cleansing can supply and may even trigger module harm or the disruption to O&M schedules as a result of failures.
Want for a trusted companion
Capital expenditure (capex) is perhaps one factor weighing on builders’ minds on the subject of including robotics to a photo voltaic website however working expenditure (opex) is an equally essential issue, and the survey information indicated that this was understood by the trade. When requested which enterprise mannequin is most popular for robotic cleansing, practically half opted for a mixed capex-opex mannequin, whereas greater than 25% indicated that leasing was a desired mannequin.
Having a trusted companion offers a full understanding of undertaking expenditure and larger undertaking effectivity. It is because O&M is not blinded by variable, ad-hoc upkeep prices.
However it isn’t simply discovering a trusted companion that may make robotics viable for tasks – it additionally depends on the endeavor and enthusiasm of O&M and asset managers. Asset managers and O&M suppliers have been seen as the important thing drivers of implementation, as indicated by 56% of the responses, whereas 46% of these surveyed who didn’t have automation, believed its implementation ought to be all the way down to administration.
It seems the actual drivers of automation are the on-the-ground personnel and that they’ve the actual energy to drive robotic implementation.
The pv journal/Ecoppia survey
- The survey comprised 23 questions exploring elements of module cleansing for respondents who already deploy robotic cleansing and those who don’t
- The questions coated each technical and industrial elements of robotic cleansing and PV undertaking O&M
- The survey was performed between Might and July 2022 and was accomplished by lots of of respondents from all around the world
- It was first launched throughout a pv journal webinar in April 2022
The goal of this first-of-its type survey was to raised perceive the expectations and desires of the photo voltaic market in relation to robotic cleansing, which itself represents a radical change in the way in which O&M is performed at massive scale photo voltaic websites.
At a look
The robotics chosen for a PV undertaking matter and there may be an understanding among the many trade that security, high quality, and reliability are an important components. O&M groups are involved with discovering robotic cleansing techniques that work for his or her distinctive construction and geography and so they search for a companion that may adapt to their particular person website wants.
By means of the survey, one of many essential takeaways was that price shouldn’t be the one think about selecting a robotic cleansing companion. Expense is, nonetheless, an impediment that wants overcoming, because it holds asset homeowners and managers again from reaping the advantages that robotic cleansing can ship in in the end lowering a website’s LCOE. Lastly, the capex-only mannequin hinders progress and limits the power of asset managers to maintain up with altering necessities in photo voltaic power innovation, which is inevitable in tasks that last as long as 25 years.
This content material is protected by copyright and is probably not reused. If you wish to cooperate with us and want to reuse a few of our content material, please contact: [email protected].
