Student Solar Panel Cleaner Captures and Recycles Water

November 21, 2024

As renewable energy technology evolves, a group of Wentworth Institute of Technology students designed a solution to a practical challenge faced by solar panel systems. Their work blends innovation with sustainability, aiming to simplify maintenance on dirty panels and reduce resource use.

We spoke with Jason Levreault, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering student, about the work that he and his classmates conducted on their capstone project while undergrads in the Mechanical Engineering program.

What is the project?

Jason: Our capstone is a modular water recycling solar panel cleaning system. It's modular in the way that it's plug and play on any size solar panel system. And it recycles its own water and also captures rainwater, transforming any solar panel into a water collecting device and virtually reversing the need for clean water and maintenance for solar panels.

Where did the idea come from?

Jason: One of our original ideas was a chalkboard cleaning device, and it had the same sort of design with an X and Y cleaning track. And then we kind of transferred over into a sustainability focused idea, and solar panels are on the rise. They're going to grow from about 3% of the US energy production to around 45% by 2050. It's a massive industry. It's growing really rapidly. And this just seemed like a kind of good business decision as well as a good way to help the planet.

Levreault (second from left) and the Mechanical Engineering student team

How did your co-op experience influence the project?

Jason: One of my co-ops is actually in the construction industry, Arco National. We built large logistics buildings as well as other advanced manufacturing and life sciences style buildings. Part of the idea [for the capstone] came from that because on a lot of our buildings, we have these massive flat roofs, and that room is often taken up by solar panels. So, this is just something that kind of tied into that.

And [items like this] can reduce your stormwater load from the roof. You can transfer this water into either water used in the building or water recycling used for solar panel cleaner.