A Solar Bot, a startup founded by engineers from UnB (University of Brasília), is developing, according to the company, the primeiro national solar panel cleaning robot, completely autonomous and which does not use water.
“Our solution follows the robotic operation models that were successful in large plants in Europe, reducing maintenance costs and maintaining the efficiency of the photovoltaic plant”, stated Rédytton Brenner, founder of Solar Bot.
“The fact of not using water is interesting because it makes it possible to save a precious resource, make the operation cheaper and even carry out cleaning in plants that are in remote locations”, he highlighted.
To give you an idea, losses in solar energy production due to dirt represent 7% of all generation in the United States and can reach almost 50% in the Middle East, according to NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory).
Furthermore, the report Soiling Losses – Impact on the Performance of Photovoltaic Power Plants 2022, published by IEA-PVPS (Photovoltaic Energy Systems Program of the International Energy Agency), points out that the loss of revenue due to dirt in the module it should reach almost R$40 billion in 2023.
About Solar Bot
The startup is made up of entrepreneurs with degrees in Engineering, Programming and Law, in addition to having experience in the photovoltaic sector. They currently have an office within a solar energy company in Goiás and the R&D (Research and Development) part is being implemented in the UnB Technology Park.
The company participated in a presentation round at the MIT Reap event held in Rio de Janeiro and has already won some awards: it was accelerated by Inovativa, accelerated and won an award by the USP Entrepreneurship Center and came in 2nd place overall in the III Olympiad National Innovation Agency (Eletrobras).
According to the executive, the company also won 1st place in the Brazilian Energy Olympics (EnergyC), were winners of the FapDF Start BSB Innovation Notice and finalists in the MIT Reap program.
“We raised an angel investment in the initial stage worth R$ 350 thousand and now we are preparing to approach investment funds”, concluded the founder of Solar Bot.
Comments (6)
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IT IS SOMETHING COMPLEX, BECAUSE THE GRAVITY IN ALL THIS, FOR CORRECT WASHING, IS, 100% THE USE OF WATER, BEING ESSENTIAL, BUT HOWEVER,
WATER IS AN EXCEPTIONAL CONSUMER GOOD, AND IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO LIVE WITHOUT IT, AND NOT EVEN IN YOUR DREAM SHOULD NATURAL AND TREATED WATER BE USED, AS IT IS LIMITED AND EXPENSIVE ALL OVER THE WORLD.
SO, THE MOST SUITABLE ALTERNATIVE, TO THE WORLD, AND I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THIS FOR YEARS, IS RAINWATER STORAGE POINTS, AND THEN INTERCALATING THRU THE YEAR, DRY CLEANING, AND WITH REUSED WATER.
THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.
Very good, mainly because it does not depend on the use of water.
Does anyone have any idea of the cost of this equipment when sold?
It is worth remembering that they must PATEN THIS URGENTLY.
Very cool! I hope you can grow and expand even more!
very good initiative. but there is still a lot of dirt but plaque after cleaning. Excellent work and idea from the team, but the result could be improved.
Congratulations to the entire SolarBot team, an essential service for O&M in Brazil.