Chile is one of the world's leading countries in solar energy relative to the size of its electric grid. In recent years, billions of dollars have been invested in solar farms. Today, 18% of installed electricity generation capacity comes from solar power , and this generation technology dominates among new projects currently under development and study. One of the key factors in the efficiency of solar plants is keeping the modules that receive sunlight clean. This is particularly important in northern Chile, a region that accounts for the bulk of solar projects and where the arid, desert environment causes dust to accumulate on the panels. Additionally, the critical water shortage in this part of the country adds an extra layer of stress to the challenges of cleaning.

It is this type of problem that sparks innovation. Thus, the company Eccopia has developed a robot that autonomously cleans the panels using microfiber and without using water. The robot runs on stored solar energy and operates at night. This has two advantages: it cleans the panels when they aren’t capturing solar energy, and it prevents accumulated dust from sticking to the panels due to moisture condensing from low temperatures. Eccopia has installed this solution at more than 30 solar facilities around the world, including the Andes Solar project in Chile.

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