Managing Expectations

The PV Solar Enhance system is designed to protect your investment and keep your panels clean and working at their best. However, it is not a “special force field” as dust and dirt can still accumulate but will greatly decrease. Periodic maintenance is still required. Light transference is lost as the solar panel becomes dirtier, and voltage output decreases.

It is important to understand the types of damage dust can cause. For example, in Utah’s Black Rock Desert (S.W. USA), the ‘sand’ on the playa isn’t really fine sand. It’s a fine, highly corrosive alkali dust. By fine, we mean it is much finer than talcum powder or icing sugar. It has a pH greater than 10, which means it’s alkaline and corrosive enough to cause chemical burns.

It accumulates and settles on everything. Then, when it gets wet, it forms a highly corrosive liquid that attacks whatever it’s getting on. It pits metal and glass, and if it gets sucked into your vehicle’s engine, it can also erode all the seals it comes into contact with. It can also affect the seals on your solar panels, causing moisture ingress.

Similarly, volcanic ash can settle on solar panels in areas of the world with active volcanos. This ash is highly abrasive and very sharp, causing minute scratches on the surface of solar panels lowering performance.

If this ash is allowed to accumulate, and the solar panels become covered with thick layers of ash, this ash can harden into a sticky layer, lowering or essentially stopping the power output. This can be cleaned off with dish soap, baking soda, and water. Ensure you use a clean cloth to remove all the ash, as it can act like sandpaper cutting into the surface.  

Forest fire and volcanic ash can travel thousands of miles on the wind, and you can be totally ignorant of their arrival. This is the very reason why it is important to service panels regularly, to ensure they are kept clean and working at their optimum.

The same applies to pollen in the springtime, diesel in areas that use diesel generators, or panels that are close to train lines. All these types of deposits affect performance.

BL170 PV Solar Enhance helps prevent these deposits from building up and bonding and helps in their release from the surface, especially when it rains. The result is your panels remain cleaner, and cooler, and voltage output increases, producing more power for longer.

Smart maintenance programs can mitigate potential degradation. Using trusted ‘PV Solar Enhance’ products, applied with care (with a clean product-dampened cloth to a dirt and dust-free surface), will ensure a solar system will perform at its best and maintain peak performance over the lifecycle of the panel. This maintenance cycle will maximize panel longevity and greatly improve your return on investment.