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  • #7338
    Vicki Cowan
    Keymaster

    Can anyone advise best way to clean lichen from pv panels?

    Some of you will remember Lois Easton, Beacon’s retrofit queen? Lois has recently noticed a drop off in performance of her PV panels, she’s done a bit of tree pruning to reduce shading, but there’s also lichen growing on one of the panels (thinks pine pollen caused sediment build up and lichen has grown). She’s trawled the internet but can’t find good advice. Does anyone have experience or advice for lichen cleaning?
    Thanks on Lois’ behalf
    Vicki

    #7340
    philgregg
    Participant

    Hi Lois ( Via Vicki)

    In Tauranga, we seem to get the Pine Pollen every year and the Lichen build-up happens yearly.

    When Cleaning yearly I could do from the top of the ladder with a water feed pole and brush. When I left for 2 years I had to get on the roof and scrub with some light scraping with a window scraper to remove small areas of Lichen, if I leave longer than 2 years I have to use spray & forget or 30 secs moss & mould killer, then scrub & scape with soapy water to bring back to new.

    As you may ascertain from reading, I have had HWS & PV for a number of years. I do like to keep away from chemicals. To do that regularity is the key.

    #7415
    Adam Reid
    Participant

    Hi Lois and Vicki,

    I don’t have solar panels but have removed lichen from the greenhouse roof plenty of times so I think the same principles will apply. I note there are companies that provide solar panel cleaning services if you don’t fancy doing it yourself.

    Because lichen is a fungus living in association with an algae most things that kills fungus will also work on lichen. Good old white vinegar will kill it, but just like killing mould in the home you still need to scrub with soapy water to remove the lichen so I don’t think that there is any real advantage to killing it first.

    One thing I know from experience is that lichen scrubs off more easily when it is wet and spongy as it much softer and breaks apart more easily. When it is dry, hard and leathery it is much more difficult. So following some damp winter weather you would find it easier to remove. Alternatively, hose it down a few times to keep it wet for a few hours before removing.

    As a preventative hosing/cleaning the panels regularly to remove dust and pollen will help.

    You could experiment with applying a hydrophobic coating (available online). In theory this would help the dust and pollen to wash off more easily in the rain and would keep the surface of the panels drier. You would need to check that it won’t affect the performance of the panels though. I don’t have any experience of the effectiveness of this though so it would be purely experimental.

    Regards
    Adam

    #7487
    Vicki Cowan
    Keymaster

    Thanks Adam and Phil,
    I’ve sent these onto Lois – alas while she was instrumental in setting up the Hub she’s no longer in it!
    I would note that since many of the folk in the Hub did their HPA training we’ve revised our mould cleaning advice! Have stepped away from vinegar on hearing that it doesn’t necessarily kill and if not washed off can provide a substrate for growth (they grow mould in the lab on agar plates with acetic acid! but in homes is sticky attracts dust, add water grow mould!). Adam rightly emphasised physical removal – get that elbow grease working! I’ve attached the revised advice to this message in case others haven’t caught up with the change.
    nice to be hanging in the hub with you all!
    Vicki

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    #7565
    Vicki Cowan
    Keymaster

    Quick update from Lois: chased solar industry who advised no chemicals or scrapers
    Vicki

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