SBIR Phase II: Increasing energy yield from dusty solar panels with a new generation of an electrostatic self-cleaning technology

SBIR 第二阶段：利用新一代静电自清洁技术提高多尘太阳能电池板的能源产量

• 批准号: 2322204
• 负责人: James Smith
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: SUPERCLEAN GLASS, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-01 至 2026-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322204&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Increasing; energy

The broader impact and commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will generate numerous positive societal outcomes by increasing the economic competitiveness of the United States through the development of innovation in solar energy and promoting energy independence. Worldwide, the tremendous growth of large utility-scale solar power plants in desert-like regions has put extreme pressure on local water resources for cleaning dust from solar panels. A typical solar power plant of 100 megawatts can power 42,000 homes. Over its 25-year life, this power plant requires 38 million gallons of potable water, transported by 4750 tanker trucks, and incurs $22 million in cleaning costs (without even factoring in 25 years of inflation). Cleaning over one-quarter of a million dusty solar panels multiple times a year would still result in a loss of $51 million in energy sales due to this soiling from dust. Reducing these losses and avoiding all these costs has a great impact on lowering the cost of our electricity for homes, electric vehicles, and the growing electrification of society.This SBIR Phase II project proposes to lower the cost of solar electricity, improve the reliability and predictability of solar power plants, and, importantly, eliminate the use of water in the cleaning of dusty solar panels in these desert-like regions. To address technological and scientific challenges related to this new technology, the research’s efforts will include a combination of experiments and modeling to increase the size of prototypes and verify their performance in laboratory and field conditions. The outcomes of these efforts will result in improved efficiency, lower cost, and scalability of this new approach. Our industrial partners will guide the commercialization efforts to facilitate wide adoption of this technology by the solar industry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）II期项目的更广泛的影响和商业潜力将通过通过太阳能创新并促进能源独立性来提高美国的经济竞争力来产生许多积极的社会成果。在全球范围内，大型公用事业规模的太阳能发电厂在类似沙漠的地区造成了极大的压力，以清洁太阳能电池板的灰尘。 100兆瓦的典型太阳能发电厂可以为42,000户房屋供电。在其25年的25年寿命中，这家发电厂需要3800万加仑的饮用水，由4750辆油轮运输，并产生2200万美元的清洁成本（甚至不考虑25年的通货膨胀）。每年多次清理超过四分之一的尘土飞扬的太阳能电池板，由于这种灰尘的污染，仍会导致5100万美元的能源销售损失。减少这些损失并避免所有这些成本对降低我们的电力，电动汽车和社会的电气化的成本具有很大的影响。这项SBIR II期项目的提议提出的提案提案，提高太阳能的可靠性和可预测性，太阳能发电厂的可靠性和可预测性，重要的是，重要的是，重要的是，在这些尘土飞扬的沙漠中消除了这些尘埃地点，这些地区在这些沙漠中含有这些景点。为了解决与这项新技术相关的技术和科学挑战，该研究的工作将包括实验和建模的结合，以增加原型的规模，并在实验室和现场条件下验证其性能。这些努力的结果将提高效率，较低的成本和这种新方法的可扩展性。我们的工业伙伴将指导商业化工作，以促进太阳能行业对这项技术的广泛采用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，通过评估诚实地认为我们的支持。