Chemitek products explained: Which cleaner or coating for which contaminant

Chemitek is a Portuguese maker of liquid-technology products for industrial maintenance, based in Esposende and led by its founder and CEO, César Martins. Its homepage counts 25 products, sales in more than 70 countries and more than 60 distributors (September 2026).

Three facts matter to an asset owner. Chemitek’s PV products are tested by ÉMI-TÜV SÜD for safety on module glass, anti-reflective coatings and frames. Their biodegradability is tested to OECD 301F by Portugal’s CVR, and Chemitek’s own wording is “readily biodegradable”. And the PV products carry letters of conformity from module makers: Solar Wash Protect has 18. Counts for each product are in cleaning and your module warranty. Chemitek’s quality management is certified to ISO 9001:2015, and Solar Wash Protect received the Solar Impulse Foundation’s “Efficient Solution” label in January 2022.

RenewChem’s specialist O&M engineers work on solar, wind and CSP plants across Southern Africa, alongside plant owners, asset managers and O&M contractors, and RenewChem is Chemitek’s official Southern African distributor. Order just the products for your own crews, or bring in our engineers to measure the site and set the product, dilution, equipment and interval with you.

Chemitek’s solar range does three jobs, which map onto the Restore → Protect → Maintain programme we design for each plant:

• Restore: removers for deposits that water can’t shift. Inorganic Removal Agent, Lichen Removal Agent, Metal Oxides Removal Agent and Paint Removal Agent.
• Protect: coatings that make new soiling bond less. Antistatic Solar Armor 2.0 (antistatic) and D-Solar Defendor (hydrophobic) for PV, Mirtek for CSP mirrors, and Industrial Glass Protect for glass.
• Maintain: routine cleaning that leaves a light protective layer. Solar Wash Protect, with Water Softening Agent where the water is hard.

Behind them sit a handful of Chemitek technologies: breaking the bond between a contaminant and the glass; a fast, visible reaction with the soiling; antistatic and hydrophobic coatings applied in the wash; an anti-adherent layer; ion capture of calcium, magnesium, sodium and iron for hard water; and aluminium-frame protection, which lets removers use actives that aren’t pH-neutral.

Where Chemitek’s documents differ on a dilution, we quote the datasheet and set the final dose with a test on site. JA Solar’s letter of 17 June 2025 names ten products.

Both are anti-soiling coatings applied during a normal clean, with at least 12 months of protection (Chemitek). They work differently and suit different sites.

The field evidence is real but modest, and site-specific. See the Morocco trial, the Vietnam case and the Santiago Solar tracker plant in Chile. Chemitek’s figure of up to 50% less water is on Solar Wash Protect. Tractor-mounted brushes are common on South African plants; see soiling losses in South Africa.

But coatings can disappoint. Long-term field results are typically 20–50% less soiling, not the 80% seen in short tests, and some coatings make soiling worse (Ilse et al. 2019). In a Northern Cape trial, a hydrophobic coating increased dust soiling (du Plessis et al. 2020). Prove any coating on your own strings first.

When the deposit is bonded. Solar Wash Protect is made for loose soiling; cured cement, lichen, rust and paint each need the remover made for them. Removers are remediation products, so the pattern is always the same: test a small area, apply to the datasheet, rinse thoroughly, then protect straight away. Chemitek recommends Antistatic Solar Armor after Inorganic Removal Agent, and a coating after Lichen Removal Agent.

Two Chemitek cases show the pattern. See the Dubai case. In Israel, modules coated with Antistatic Solar Armor straight after cement removal still cleaned fully two weeks later, while cement had stuck to the uncoated ones (Case study: Chemitek (Portugal), with Girasol). See cement dust on solar panels for the full method and more results.

Where does Water Softening Agent fit? Hard water leaves scale every time a rinse dries. Water Softening Agent captures the calcium and magnesium in the wash water, acts in about 20 minutes and can be dosed in the tank or in real time by a dosing pump. Measure hardness with test strips, not a TDS meter: Chemitek warns that a TDS meter reads the agent itself. See water quality for solar panel cleaning.

• Mirtek for CSP. At the SOLABEN CSP plant in Spain (Case study: Chemitek (Portugal), with Atlantica and Rio Glass Services), treated mirrors lost reflectivity 6 times more slowly after jetwash application (0.40% in 10 days, against 2.44% in 11 days untreated) and 13 times more slowly after brush application (0.16% against 2.17% in 10 days). See the SOLABEN case. It comes in a 4.5 kg drum. We pair it with CSP reflectivity measurement.
• Industrial Glass Protect. A ready-to-use hydrophobic coating at 5–10 mL/m², applied between 5 °C and 30 °C, with a lifetime of up to 5 years (Chemitek). It passed ÉMI-TÜV SÜD stress tests (acid, alkali, salt, heat, cold and UV) and a dust-chamber anti-soiling test.
• The drone range. Drone Solar Cleaning Agent washes PV without brushing. Drone Wind Turbine Cleaning Agent is a readily biodegradable, water-based degreaser for blades, towers and nacelles, applied at no less than 0.1–0.2 L of diluted product per m², with a green dye that shows where it has been sprayed. Commercial drone work in South Africa needs SACAA approvals: an Air Service Licence, a UAS Operator Certificate, an RPAS Letter of Approval and a Remote Pilot Licence for the pilot.

Order just the products if your crews already clean. RenewChem supplies the range across Southern Africa from Cape Town, with the technical and safety data sheets, and our engineers will talk you through dilution and dosing.

If you want more than the product, our engineers can also:

1. identify the contaminant on site;
2. measure the soiling rate;
3. test the water against your module maker’s limits;
4. check the letters of conformity for your modules;
5. choose brushes, dosing and the crew method;
6. prove the result on your own strings, free for utility-scale and large C&I plants.

Each of these is optional, and we work alongside your O&M contractor rather than replace it. See the Chemitek range, or start with a free pilot. For approvals and warranty conditions, read will cleaning chemicals void my panel warranty?