Ingenuity is increasing in search of cheap and effective methods to prevent ice formation on solar panels.
A team of University of Toledo researchers is competing to win hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding through the US Department of Energy's America-Made Solar Award initiative.
If successful, the project could release solar energy in regions where heavy snow affects indoor efficiency.
Snow covers that block sunlight lose 1 to 12 percent of solar energy each year. Persistent heavy snowfall could shut down power production for up to a month, Sandia National Laboratories reported.
The UT research team's answer is called ice-free sunlight.
The idea is to attach durable materials to the "bottom end of solar panels to avoid ice," according to a statement from the Department of Energy.
"We've been working on this for a while," Hossein Sojudi, who led the research team, told the Blade. Due to the ongoing funding competition, I did not provide many technical details in this report.
A YouTube video posted by Sojudi gives some more details. In the clip, he said that current methods of removing ice from solar panels are "expensive" and can damage solar technology.
The video shows a man clearing snow from the panel system with a long pole.
The UT team's solution was to attach a thin piece (about the size of duct tape) to the bottom edge of the panel. Sojudi said this will not affect solar power plants.
The clip shows two sets of panels, one with ice-free material and one without. The snow slipped from the cracked panels, but remained in the control group.
"Our solution is revolutionary technology," sales consultant Dan Vining said in the video.
In the US, solar energy accounts for about 2.8% of all electricity. According to the Department of Energy, total renewable energy, including wind, hydroelectricity and other sources, is about 20%.
The US-Made Solar Award, a multi-million dollar solar innovation competition, encourages the rapid development and implementation of ideas, according to the competition's website.
The Snowfry project is one of the many projects underway at UT in the field of solar energy. Researchers are working with the US Air Force on flexible photovoltaic energy panels that "harness 37% more intense sunlight in the upper atmosphere."
For Snow's Free Work, researchers raise all the money they can to win a competition from the Department of Energy. According to The Blade, the program has awarded more than $15 million to unique solar projects since 2018. UT team members will try to find out if they won an additional half million dollars in September.
A snow-free future for solar panels will be good news for those who use solar energy. This could also open up new opportunities in the snowy regions of America.
“I'm a [homeowner] in Utah and I only have 48 panels total… I'm interested in trying this,” one YouTube viewer commented on Sojudi's video.
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