Generate electricity from wind and sweep dust away! DGIST has successfully developed a self-powered solar panel pollutant removal technology

□ Through collaborative research with Dr. Wanchul Seung at Global Technology Research, Samsung Electronics, a research team led by Professor Juhyuck Lee from the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST; President Kunwoo Lee) has successfully developed a self-powered pollution prevention technology that can remove pollutants from the surface of solar panels without external power. This technology uses a wind-powered rotational triboelectric nanogenerator^[1] to generate power and combines said power with electrodynamic screen (EDS) technology to move dust in the desired direction for removal.

□ The dust that gathers on the surface of solar panels causes a significant reduction in power production efficiency. EDS technology, designed to address this problem, uses electric fields to remove dust from the surface, and it is noted for environments that are not easily accessible, such as deserts, mountains, and space, as it does not require cleaning equipment or personnel. Traditional EDS technology, however, requires high voltage and, consequently, external power, and it has the disadvantage of additional maintenance costs.

□ To overcome these limitations, in 2024, the research team at DGIST suggested a single-phase wind-powered EDS system. The single-phase system, however, relies on gravity to remove dust as it is moved repeatedly from side to side between the electrodes; it has low efficiency, and its performance varies greatly depending on the angle at which the solar panel is mounted.

□ In the < UNK>, a self-developed three-phase EDS system was designed with a three-phase rotational triboelectric nanogenerator directly powered by wind and novel three-phase EDS electrode patterns to move pollutants in the desired direction. Regardless of the angle at which the panel is mounted, this technology maintains high removal efficiency, and it is more effective than traditional methods, as it sweeps dust in one direction.

□ The experiment results showed that the developed three-phase rotational triboelectric nanogenerator produced a high voltage of up to 1,383 V, and it achieved a dust removal efficiency of 83.48%, 1.6 times better than the previous single-phase technology. Furthermore, when powered by wind alone, it restored the dirty solar panels ' conversion efficiency (PCE) to approximately 96% of their initial PCE.

□ “The key takeaway in this study is that three-phase high voltage generated by wind power is used to move dust in the desired direction, and it does not require external power,” said Professor Lee. “This technology will reduce the maintenance costs of solar panels and can be applied efficiently across a wide range of environments.”

□ Meanwhile, this study was funded by the Nano Future Material Original Technology Development Project and the Mid-Career Research Project under the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea. The study results were published in Nano Energy, one of the world’s most authoritative journals in the field of energy (First authors: Cheoljae Lee, a student in a combined Master’s and PhD program at DGIST, and Junyoung Yang, a student in a Master’s program at DGIST).

- Corresponding Author E-mail Address : jhlee85@dgist.ac.kr
 

^[1] Rotational triboelectric nanogenerator: Energy harvesting technology that uses mechanical energy from friction between objects through rotational motion to produce electricity.