By December 2019 Iberdola will select the winner of its Startup Challenge: Photovoltaic cleaning with an eye to improve operability and maintenance of its PV plants. (Source: Iberdrola, S.A.)

Spanish energy company Iberdrola has launched a competition seeking waterless, sustainable and low-cost solutions to improve solar panel cleaning processes in large-scale PV projects with over 100 MW capacity. Launched under the Iberdrola-PERSEO International Startup Program, the competition is open to startups from around the globe and is called Startup Challenge: Photovoltaic cleaning.

It seeks such cleaning solutions for four categories, namely fixed tilt, multi-row single-axis tracker, one row single-axis tracker plants and generic solutions to different kinds of plant configurations. Such solutions can be used in several nearby plants as well and be totally autonomous and/or remotely operated.

According to the eligibility criteria the cleaning solution should be energy-independent and not add weight to the panels or negatively impact their characteristics.

Once a winner is decided, Iberdrola will fund technical support to test the solution on the installations by its renewables subsidiary as a pilot project. If successful, it will be incorporated by the company into its provider portfolio with an aim to improve the operability and maintenance of its PV plants.

The winning technology could also be scaled up to the group’s entire PV project portfolio with a total installed capacity of more than 14 GW.

The application process started on September 5, 2019 and will end on October 18, 2019. The winner will be announced in December 2019 with the pilot project scheduled for the period between December 2019 and January 2020.

Details about the competition are available on a dedicated website.