Given that the world’s largest solar farm is located in the scorching hot desert of Rajasthan state, in northeastern India, cleaning the solar panels on the now 5,700-hectare site would be a challenge without solar-powered robotic cleaners.

Ecoppia, a leading company in the field of robotic PV cleaning solutions, uses cloud-based water-free robotic technology to clean the solar panels during the night. It can be controlled remotely using its cloud-based support, and is itself powered by solar energy.

It’s estimated that the robotic cleaners will save more than two billion liters of water over 25 years of a solar plant operation.

Since its first project in the Middle East in 2014, Ecoppia has designed, installed, and maintained advanced robots in harsh environments, totaling in more than 10 million cleaning sessions.

Bhadla is located in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan where temperatures range between 46 to 48 ℃, rainfall is scarce, and sand storms are common. But it has clear skies throughout the year.

Since construction began in 2015, Bhadla Solar Park has grown in four phases, with each field of solar panels larger than the last. Today it generates enough electricity to power 4.5 million homes.

The buildout happened quickly thanks to the Climate Investment Fund which was set up by the G8 countries to co-finance climate-mitigation projects, says Business Insider. “With our $200 million we were able to mobilize $112 million in additional cofinancing just on this project, which has resulted in 5.6 million tonnes of CO2 reduced, and it has put 2.7 gigawatts of installed capacity on the ground,” said Daniel Morris, the fund’s clean energy lead. 

“Solar panels were commercially viable in 2013 in a lot of places, it was just that the cost of generation was not competitive in places like India, and in Rajasthan, the way coal was. But now the cost of technology has come down so much that it’s incredibly viable.”

Bhadla underscores how massive projects require careful logistical planning so the pieces fall into place at the right time, including being connected to a wider grid. And in India, this meant navigating the bureaucracy and politics of both the nationwide and regional electric grids.

As later phases took grid connections into consideration, India now has a fairly thriving solar industry and hit its 2022 20-gigawatt solar-installation target in 2018.

“I think it shows that when you make an effort to prioritize scale, things can ramp up very quickly,” said Morris. “When you see technology costs dropping, sometimes precipitously like they have with solar panels, then the opportunity to do more just grows and grows.”

Sources:

India is harnessing renewable energy through the world’s biggest solar farm. Here’s how it happened. Business Insider, Nov. 22, 2022

Ecoppia to deploy 2,000 panel cleaning robots in Bhadla solar park for SB Energy Mercom Clean Energy Insight, Jul. 5, 2018

India is harnessing renewable energy through the world’s biggest solar farm. Here’s how it happened. Business Insider, Nov. 22, 2022

Bhadla Solar Park: World’s Largest Solar Plant EcoIgloo, Dec. 29, 2020

Cover image: NASA