When do I need a robot for solar cleaning?

Solar cleaning and PV cleaning are currently a much-discussed topic in the field of building, glass and osmosis cleaning.
As solar systems are getting bigger and bigger, the need for cleaning is increasing and there are systems that are absolutely ready for the market, the question arises:

At what point do I need a robot or a self-propelled machine for solar cleaning?

Today we will try to provide you with an answer to this difficult question.

We will address the following points:

1. What advantages do robots offer for solar cleaning?
2. When are these solar cleaning machines used?
3. Which systems do we recommend for automatic and semi-autonomous solar cleaning?
4. What accessories do I need to use robots on solar systems?

First of all, we would like to give you a shortcut to our range of robots for solar cleaning.
We rely exclusively on products from our partner company hyCLEANER.
You can find the great machines here:

The solar robots from hyCLEANER in our store.

You can find complete sets for solar cleaning (in all sizes) here:

Professional sets incl. robots and rotating brushes for solar cleaning

1. what advantages do robots offer for solar cleaning?

Robots and self-propelled cleaning machines for solar systems are the solution for meeting the immense increase in the volume of solar systems and the ever-growing demand for cleaning these systems in the coming years. After all, the task of PV and solar cleaning is not only getting bigger and bigger (in the truest sense of the word) due to the immense growth in surface areas. The general shortage of personnel, the sometimes strenuous, physical work and ever-increasing requirements in the area of occupational safety are making the task of "solar cleaning" more complex from year to year. The fact that roofs and surfaces are increasingly being covered with solar systems that are not ideal in terms of their design or location, which has a negative impact on accessibility or tendency to become dirty, is also part of everyday life.
Finally, more and more customers and systems are coming onto the market that have been in place for years or decades and now need to be cleaned for the first time in view of rising electricity prices or possible plans to use the electricity themselves in the future. All these tasks can often be performed better and sometimes even exclusively with self-propelled cleaning machines for solar systems - so-called solar robots. In the following, we will not go into the general advantages of solar cleaning. These are sufficiently discussed and undisputed. We will focus specifically on the advantages of solar cleaning using robots. Here is an overview:

Cleaning performance per hour:
In combination with pure water, these devices can achieve a surface performance that is 3-10 times higher than what a person can achieve in manual solar cleaning, even if rotating brushes are used! The machines - such as the solaROBOT pro from hyCLEANER in Gronau - can often be used by a single person all day without causing fatigue.

Occupational safety:
The use of our solar robots ensures that employees hardly have to walk on roofs and solar installations, if at all.
Dangerous climbing and searching for the next approved attachment point are a thing of the past when the employees concerned can control the work from a safe distance.

Better cleaning effect:
The machines and solar robots we sell have a significantly better cleaning effect than conventional brushes due to the built-in rotating brushes.
This means that lichens, moss and the like can be removed more effectively than with manual brushes. Even in comparison to rotating brushes, which are guided on poles, the robots have immense advantages, as the uniform movement of the plants is permanently ensured here. Contact pressure, travel speed, brush angle and number of passes can be repeated and maintained much better and more evenly over large areas with a robot than with the manual version.

Cost savings for access platforms:
The use of our solar robots ensures that you can use fewer or smaller and therefore less expensive cherry pickers and height access technology.
Particularly in the case of solar installations with large spans, traditional cleaning with telescopic poles and washing brushes often required a maximum reach of 12-15 meters.
The rest had to be covered by sometimes large and expensive cherry pickers with a corresponding overhang. We are aware of solar installations that could not be cleaned at all due to this problem. By using machines such as the solarROBOT compact from hyCLEANER, it is sometimes possible to completely dispense with access at height, as the machine can be dismantled into small parts and brought onto the roof using ladders. If this is not possible, a smaller device is often sufficient to place the machine on the solar system.
The employee no longer has to be brought far above the solar system, but can remain at the edge. The difference in rental costs for the corresponding cranes and climbers is sometimes immense.

Maintenance cleaning on solar systems becomes possible:
Due to the immense area performance of the solaROBOT machines, regular cleaning of systems is sometimes only economically feasible in the first place.
Accordingly, in cases where PV systems are particularly exposed, regular (e.g. annual) cleaning can even be offered at attractive prices.
Due to the shorter soiling time, this is of course also easier than the usual cleaning at loose intervals or after many years.
As a result, real problems caused by cleaning that has not been carried out for years or even decades can be avoided. One example of this is the infestation of lichens and mosses, which may adhere so strongly that they can no longer be removed by quality-assured cleaning.

In extreme cases, cleaning is only possible in the first place:
There are special cases of large solar installations, with large spans - e.g. on large monopitch roofs, near bodies of water or with large slopes on the buildings - which are so contrived that cleaning was previously not technically or economically possible at all. In some cases, "cleaning the solar system remotely" is the only way to maintain the systems accordingly and restore the performance of the PV systems to their original level (or close to it).
In view of the increasing expansion of solar technology in Germany, the number of such special cases will also tend to increase.

2 When are these solar cleaning machines used?
There is no general answer to the question of when a solar robot should be used or purchased. It also depends on whether the owner of the machine primarily uses it to clean their own solar systems or whether they are active as a cleaning service provider. However, we will try to outline a few guidelines here for our customers to follow. Basically, the machines are of course designed and developed for cleaning large solar installations.

For the question of when a solar robot is worthwhile, we take the perspective of a service provider.

A brief digression first:
The question of when the purchase of a robot is "worthwhile" for a PV system owner with "in-house cleaning" is even more individual and difficult to answer. This tends to depend on even more factors than the approach taken by a service provider. Even if the right moment for the worthwhile purchase of a robot is basically only likely to be reached for really large systems (well above 1 megawatt peak), in practice a rather opposite tendency can be observed.
As a certain hobby probably plays a role here and cleaning with robots is often simply fun, we will not go into this point any further.

So now to the question of when you, as a building cleaner or service provider, can and should purchase a robot for PV cleaning:
If you are still considering a purchase and do not have a robot in your machine park, as a service provider you will first want to have a few large projects in the customer's portfolio that have 500 or more modules before you can bring yourself to purchase such a machine. Such orders should also be placed on a regular basis rather than just 1-2 times a year and the factors "type of system, inclination and access" must be such that a robot can be used sensibly. The question of whether or not rotating hand brushes are already in use for solar cleaning also plays a role. These brushes also have their raison d'être and can basically also clean large and very large PV systems. With regard to point 1 of this article, we quickly reach the point that even rotating brushes with an area performance of 200-300 m² per hour are no longer economical and practical. What's more, compared to solar robots, these still involve a huge amount of physical labor for the cleaning staff. Anyone who already has such an autonomous or semi-autonomous cleaning machine in their portfolio will always tend to use it on smaller systems from approx. 200 modules, if the other conditions at the respective property are suitable.
Anyone who finds themselves in the situation of having to conclude ongoing contracts for long-term maintenance with 1-2 really large systems (1 megawatt and more) for cleaning per year will, conversely, find it very easy to purchase a robot and then also use it economically and profitably for cleaning systems that would not have justified such a purchase on their own.
It can be fundamentally observed, particularly with new solar installations, that regular cleaning (similar to glass and maintenance cleaning) is increasingly being considered and calculated from the outset. Continuous cleaning has many advantages for both sides and also ensures a higher working speed during cleaning (whether with hand brushes or robots).

3. which systems do we recommend for automatic and semi-autonomous solar cleaning?
After careful consideration and various field tests, we decided at the beginning of 2022 to use and distribute exclusively the solar cleaning robots from hyCLEANER in Germany.
The overall package of 10 years of experience, a German development with corresponding on-site service, the semi-autonomous functions (which the competition does not offer) and the versatility with the extraordinarily good grip of the treadmills (including the unique leather belts) made the decision easy for us in the end.
The fact that the solarROBOT compact is now available on the market as a special device for service providers, glass cleaners and building cleaners (and of course also for owners of smaller systems), which is available from less than €20,000 and can be installed on the roof without a crane, confirms our decision to rely on proven quality "made in Germany"!

4 What accessories do I need to use robots on solar systems?

We list the basic accessories that should be purchased with a robot.

1. Osmosis system: We have discussed elsewhere that solar cleaning should be carried out with pure water rather than extremely soft tap water. We will not go into this topic in detail here.
2. Trolleys: We believe that trolleys suitable for every robot are an absolute must. Transport in particular, but also assembly, belt changes etc. are much easier with these useful devices.
3. Hand brush: We always recommend a small hand brush from GARDINER, Unger and Co. for pre-cleaning the installation surface.
4. Optional accessories:

• 2nd battery or 2nd battery pack for uninterrupted operation
• Alternative or additional treadmills (rubber, neoprene, leather) for different challenges or quick belt changes
• Side guides (on the solarROBOT pro) for roof pitches of up to 45°!
• Manual and rotating hand brushes for projects where a robot is out of the question (inclination over 25° or if the system is too small)
• Automatic hose reels for installation on robots or on PV systems

Here are some suggestions for complete sets for solar cleaning including robots:

Professional set for automatic solar cleaning incl. solarROBOT pro & 2 x OSMOBIL PRO X

Professional set for automatic solar cleaning incl. solarROBOT compact & OSMOBIL PRO X