SOLAR PANEL AUTOMATIC CLEANING ROBOT MARKET ANALYSIS

The solar panel absorbs energy from the sun and generates electricity. These panels need to be cleaned for their proper functioning. The dust, debris, and bird droppings or dead insects is expected to act as obstructions to sunlight falling on photovoltaic cells. It can limit the solar energy that reaches the solar cells, thereby reducing the overall power output and impacting the entire grid-connected system. In order to overcome the challenges, a solar panel cleaning equipment is developed to clean the entire panel by travelling the entire length of a panel

The global solar panel automatic cleaning robot market is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period (2021–2028) due to increasing adoption of artificial intelligence in solar panel equipment. Artificial intelligence is becoming part of many businesses such as healthcare, pharmaceutical, retail, marketing, and others. The AI technology is being incorporated in the solar panel industry as well. For instance, Kleinbot, the solar panel cleaning robot offered by Kaynes Group and Infosys, has an in-built artificial intelligence platform that recognizes bee or bird droppings and automatically performs wet cleaning at the precise locations. Also, Solavio Labs Private Limited is primarily focused on developing advanced technology for cleaning solar panels using various techniques such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and data analytics. Therefore, increasing adoption of Artificial Intelligence technology and the growing inclination towards smart infrastructure has led to the development of solar panel automatic cleaning robot. For instance, India government has focused toward development of smart city which uses only renewable energy. The Diu Smart City has become the first city in India that runs on 100% renewable energy.

Moreover, the rising electricity cost, increasing government initiatives to encourage energy optimization and increasing renewable energy capacity are some of the factor expected to drive the demand for solar panel automatic cleaning robot. According to Stratagem, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, are expected to invest US$ 182.3 billion to add up to 57GW of capacity by 2025. As compared to conventional solar panel cleaning equipment, the automatic cleaning robots are expected to gain high traction owing to the fact that conventional cleaning increases the threat of panel breakage.

High cost of solar panel cleaning robots is one of the major factor hampering the market growth. The robotic solar panel cleaning system costs higher as compared to conventional solar panel cleaning system. For instance, Automatic Robotic Cleaning System costs around US$ 50,000 – US$ 1,00,000, whereas the cost of Manual Cleaning System is around US$ 1000. Also, a water-based robotic cleaning system for 1 MW solar panel plant will require around US$ 40,000 of Operation & Maintenance (O&M) cost, in which almost 80% is the cost of cleaning. Whereas a waterless cleaning system for a similar installation has an average cost not exceeding US$ 4,000/year/MW.

Global Solar Panel Automatic Cleaning Robot Market - Impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic

The rapid outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly affected all the industries globally. The situation caused significant deterioration in economic conditions and government had to shut down commercial as well as educational sectors for a specific period. To combat COVID-19 pandemic, most of the countries had implemented lockdown, and are now easing it phase-wise and industry wise. This has significantly impacted manufacturing sector, as the facilities across the globe were temporarily shut down. Due to lockdown, solar panel projects were either postponed or cancelled which impacted the business of solar panel cleaning robots.

North America held dominant position in the global solar panel automatic cleaning robot market during the forecast period

Statistics:

Asia Pacific held dominant position in the global solar panel automatic cleaning robot market in 2020, accounting for 48.4% share in terms of value, followed by Europe, North America and Rest of the world.

Figure 1: Global Solar Panel Automatic Cleaning Robot Market Share (%), By Region, 2020

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Asia-Pacific is expected to account for the largest market share during the forecast period. Solar energy is expanding worldwide and becoming an important part of the energy mix in many countries. The solar energy is considered as most important primary energy source from which electricity is produced. Asia Pacific’s installed solar energy capacity witnessed a significant growth over the forecast period. The growth is led by the top three largest solar energy producers such as China, Japan, and India.

For instance, according to International Renewable Energy Agency, China is the largest producer of solar power in Asia Pacific as well as globally. In 2019, the country reached at 205,493.2 MW solar energy installed capacity, which is almost 3X more than the U.S. solar energy installed capacity.

Middle East region is expected to exhibit highest growth during the forecast period. According to Middle East Solar Industry Association, the government of Middle East countries are focusing on increasing share of renewable energy and have progressed in reaching their renewable energy targets. In 2020, Noor Abu Dhabi solar PV plant achieved a net production of 2,000 GWh and Dubai’s MBR Solar Park Phase 3 with 800 MW was inaugurated in end-2020

Power Plant & Industrial segment is expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period

Among application, the Power Plant & Industrial segment is expected to hold dominant position in the global solar panel automatic cleaning robot market during the forecast period. Power plant is an industrial facility that generates electricity from primary energy. One such type of plant is solar power plant. A solar power plant is differentiated depending on how the energy from sun is converted into electricity. The solar power plant is of two types, photovoltaic solar energy plant and solar thermal plant. The photovoltaic solar energy plant converts solar energy directly into electricity and other one is solar thermal plant that generates heat and electricity by concentrating the sun's energy. According to Stratagem Market Insights’ analysis, the power plant application is expected to create huge demand for automatic solar panel cleaning robots over the forecast period.

Figure 2: Global Solar Panel Automatic Cleaning Robot Market Value (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast and Y-o-Y Growth (%), 2017 - 2028

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The global solar panel automatic cleaning robot market was valued at US$ 169.3 Mn in 2020 and is expected to reach US$ 382.2 Mn by 2028 at a CAGR of 11.2% between 2021 and 2028.

Major players operating in the global solar panel automatic cleaning robot  market include NVIDIA Corporation, Intel Corporation, Xilinx, Micron Technology, Inc., Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., IBM Corporation, Google Inc., Microsoft, Facebook, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sensory Inc., Pathmind, Inc., Baidu Inc, Nuance Communications, Cisco Systems, Inc., Apple, Inc., and Wipro Limited.