On solar farms in particularly dusty places in the world, like the Arabian Peninsula and parts of India and China, air pollution costs the solar energy industry tens of billions of dollars annually. As particles settle out of the air onto the surfaces of solar panels, they constrain the panels’ potential. Workers with soapy brushes can clean the grime from the panels, much as you might clean your windshield at a car wash. But in many of these areas, water is scarce and cleaning is expensive, so there’s a tradeoff—spend precious resources and labor, or sacrifice solar energy output.
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Source: Phys.org