Solar panel cleaning for farms and agriculture

Farm solar soils faster than most: dust from fields and gravel roads, birds around dams and sheds, and borehole water that marks the glass. We set up a clean that handles all three, for your own team or through a trained cleaning partner near you.

Book a free pilot Request a cleaning

A cleaning drone spraying solar panels on a farm-shed roof, fed by a ground hose — Photo: Chemitek

0.36%/day: soiling rate on heavily farmed land, against about 0.05% a day in typical conditionsNREL O&M best practices (2018)
Up to 0.5%/day: soiling rate reported near large bird populationsNREL O&M best practices (2018)
+11.1 °C: on one cell under one bird dropping at a South African PV plant; the bypass diode switched onVumbugwa et al. (2020)

Why farm solar soils faster

Field dust. Ploughing, harvesting and gravel farm roads put dust in the air for much of the year. NREL’s O&M guide puts heavily farmed land at about 0.36% of output lost a day, against about 0.05% in typical conditions. At that rate a farm array loses about 2.5% in a week, more than a typical site loses in a month (our arithmetic).

Top-down drone view of a crew cleaning one module row: the cleaned section is dark blue, while the rest of the row and the rows beside it are still grey with dust

Birds. Dams, sheds, silos and power lines draw birds, and a dropping shades part of a cell completely. At a South African PV plant, one dropping made a cell 11.1 °C hotter and switched on its bypass diode (Vumbugwa et al. 2020), and NREL reports soiling of up to 0.5% a day near large bird populations. See bird droppings on solar panels.

Water. Farms often clean with borehole water, and hard water leaves scale on the glass every time a rinse dries. Test it before the first wash. See cleaning-water testing.

Growth. Shaded, damp corners of shed roofs can grow lichen and moss that water won’t shift. See lichen, moss and algae.

Which product for which job?

What’s on the glass	Chemitek product	Chemitek’s method
Field dust, pollen, droppings	Solar Wash Protect (SWP 50)	1 kg to 50 L of water, about 150–200 mL/m²; brush, then rinse
Hard-water scale	Inorganic Removal Agent	Start at 1 kg to 2 L on dry glass; brush in, then rinse
Hard wash water	Water Softening Agent	Dosed into the tank to the measured hardness
Lichen and moss	Lichen Removal Agent	1 kg to 10 L; soak 10–20 minutes, brush, rinse
Dust settling again after a clean	Antistatic Solar Armor 2.0	1 kg to 1,000 L through rotary brushes or robots, not by manual brush

Chemitek’s PV products were tested by ÉMI-TÜV SÜD for safety on module glass, anti-reflective coatings and frames. Where water is scarce, see low-water cleaning.

Time the clean to the farm calendar

Dust peaks when the land is worked and in the dry months. Clean after the dustiest work is done, such as ploughing and harvest, and ahead of the months when your array carries the most load, rather than on a fixed date. If you’re not sure how fast your panels soil, a site soiling assessment measures it.

Get your panels cleaned

A partner crew near you. Request a cleaning and we match you with a trained cleaning company from our partner network.
Your own farm team. We set up the method, the chemistry and the cleaning-water checks, and give you the safety data sheets for your file.
Shed roofs and hard access. Water-fed poles from a safe edge, or drone cleaning where a roof is fragile or steep.
Large agricultural plants. Utility-scale and large C&I sites qualify for a free pilot: treated strings against untreated ones, under the same sun.

We work on farms across South Africa and into Southern and Central Africa, and supply Chemitek products throughout the region.

Chemitek products for this

Running your own crews? You can order just these products from us, with or without our engineers.

Sources

Show all 8 sourcesShow fewer

Soiling-loss calculator

What is soiling costing your plant?

Put in your plant size and how often you clean to see what the lost energy costs you each year. Then let us measure the real figure on your plant.

Plant size MWp

Days between full cleans days

How fast does it get dirty?

Light0.05% a dayDry season0.2% a dayHeavy0.5% a day

Light is typical in NREL’s O&M guide; dry season is close to what an uncleaned tracker plant in Pretoria lost over a dry winter (CSIR); heavy is NREL’s upper end, near bird colonies. Cement dust and mines can be worse. Pick your region on the map

Assumptions R 1.20/kWh · 2 000 kWh/kWp a year

Energy value R /kWhAnnual yield kWh/kWp

Use your PPA tariff, or the grid tariff your solar power replaces, in your currency. About 2 000 kWh/kWp is fixed-tilt PV near Upington (Global Solar Atlas). Switching currency converts the tariff at indicative rates of 30 Sep 2026.

Revenue lost to soiling, a year

Currency

≈ R1.4 million

Average loss

6.0%

Energy lost

1 200MWh

Cleans a year

6.1

Loss builds upFull clean · 2 in 180 daysAverage loss

Get your real numbers in a free pilotBook a free pilot Open the full calculator

Indicative and non-binding. An estimate from dry-season soiling rates and the figures you enter: not a quote, an offer or a guarantee of results. The full calculator finds the cleaning interval that costs least.

Farms & agriculture

Common questions

Still have a question?

Ask one of our engineers. Tell us about your plant and we’ll answer it properly.

Send your question

How often should solar panels on a farm be cleaned?

As often as the lost energy costs more than a clean. Farmland can soil several times faster than a typical site: NREL's O&M guide puts heavily farmed land at about 0.36% a day, against about 0.05% in typical conditions. Ploughing, harvest and dry months push it up. Run your numbers in the soiling-loss calculator, or let us measure it.

Can we clean our panels with borehole water?

Test it first. Borehole water is often hard, and hard water leaves scale on the glass every time a rinse dries. Compare it with your module maker's limit on the same basis. Chemitek Water Softening Agent softens it in the tank or through a dosing pump.

Are the cleaning products safe to use on a farm?

Use products your module maker approves, and check each one against your own farm's conditions. Chemitek describes Solar Wash Protect as readily biodegradable, with biodegradability tested to OECD 301F, and we give you the safety data sheet for every product.

Can you send a crew to clean our farm's panels?

Yes. Request a cleaning and we match you with a trained cleaning company from our partner network near you, or set up the method and chemistry for your own farm team.

Our panels are on a shed roof. Is that a problem?

Not if access is planned. Crews work from a safe edge or walkway with water-fed poles, and where a roof is fragile or steep, drone cleaning sprays the panels instead. A drone sprays but doesn't brush, so bonded dirt is cleaned by hand wherever it can be reached safely.