Post by @mk30@regenerate.social

2026-07-30 19:43 UTC

If your solar punk story doesn't have "solar panel cleaning", well you're missing out (in a tropical climate, the stuff on it is jungle gunk. In a dry climate, it would be dust. In a place that gets cold, you might be cleaning snow off it). Pro-tip: do not use harsh chemicals or sharp brushes on solar panels. To clean the ones pictured below, I used water, simple green, and a sponge. If you can't get close to your panels, you can use a sponge on the end of an extender. You can also use a pressure washer. Jungle gunk is very hardy, so I had to get it wet first, then spray with the simple green, then scrub a lot, with several rinse/scrub cycles. But the result was totally worth it! My friend reported much better performance after cleaning! 🧹🧽🚿 #solarpunk #offgrid #hawaii #JungleLife #solar

Replies (7)

@hyperreal@tilde.zone 2026-07-30 19:46

@mk30@regenerate.social Wow, the difference is incredible. The clean ones are like mirrors!

Open ##5126011
@kevinrns@mstdn.social 2026-07-30 20:16

@mk30@regenerate.social Raise them up when you can, above the drip drop from the biome. I wonder if theres an animal like aquarium cleaners.

Open ##5126012
@argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-07-30 20:16

@mk30@regenerate.social Oof, yeah, sunlight wasn't getting through all that crud. Good work.

Open ##5126017
@estelle@mstdn.social 2026-07-30 23:56

@mk30@regenerate.social yeah, the grid scale deployments almost inevitably come with either some kind of fancy robot that makes cleaning huge arrays of panels not require a mountain of cheap temp workers, or a mountain of cheap temp workers there's been work in the past to use lessons the nasa lunar program learned to use electrostatic repulsion to greatly reduce the dust load to reduce maintenance costs on large panel deployments. no word yet on the ubiquity of such systems

Open ##5126018
@MatthewToadAgain@climatejustice.social 2026-07-31 01:40

@mk30@regenerate.social (At risk of diverting into real world constraints) This is actually one of the main reasons we don't have solar panels yet. We have a three floor house and the panels would be on the back, so a cherry picker probably wouldn't work, and ladders may be risky. We can't get a credible quote for cleaning because we don't have panels yet and there's more money in selling us panels. Plus none of us are safe with 8m+ ladders, for various reasons. If it was just me, I'd accept the risk; it'll still pay for itself, it just might take longer. Panels around here seem to largely clean themselves because, in spite of the widespread seagull problem, we get plenty of rain. And it's a reasonable slope. Although insurance/safety complicates it further; some sources advise cleaning your panels after any major storm, high winds etc. Which is easier said than done. And so it goes around, chicken and egg.

Open ##5126022
@ellie@ellieayla.net 2026-07-31 02:30

@mk30@regenerate.social "simple green"?

Open ##5126024
@chewie@mammut.gogreenit.net 2026-07-31 08:34

@mk30@regenerate.social there's a house near us that has 4 panels. 2 of them are directly under a TV aerial, and over time birds have sat on the aerial and there's bird poo all over then. I don't think they've ever cleaned them as it always looks really dirty :( It's easily observable from the ring road next to them too,

Open ##5126029