Solar panels require very little maintenance over their working lives, needing just the occasional wash or wipe down to remove any built up grime; mainly in areas where air pollutants are high and rain is scarce.
Research from Tel Aviv University that originally focused on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease has stumbled across an innovation for solar panels that could see what little maintenance is required reduced further.
Graduate student Lihi Adler-Abramovich and a team working under Prof. Ehud Gazit in the University’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology have found a way to make peptides “grow” into structures that resemble fields of grass.
Each blade of “grass” in these fields is tiny; around 100 nanometers, which is roughly one-billionth of a meter – much smaller than particles of dust. Their tight knight structure effectively acts as a water and grime repellent.
The water and heat resistant peptides are as simple and inexpensive to produce as the artificial sweetener aspartame.
The development could have great benefits for solar farm operators as many solar farms are constructed in dusty desert areas where water is a scarce resource.
The peptide coating also has potential in other renewable energy related areas – electric cars. One of the limitations of the electric car is thrust, and the team believes their research could lead to a solution to this challenge.
The coating has capacitor properties with unusually high energy density, so the nano-tech material could give existing electric batteries a boost when needed for high draw situations such as starting up an electric car, going up a hill, or overtaking other vehicles.
