Industrial-scale solar energy requires industrial-scale maintenance that takes hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars per year. You can overcome these challenges to enjoy lower costs, fewer headaches, and greater output. To help you do that, we’ve put together nine tips to save time and money on solar farm maintenance.
Before we dig into the good stuff, let’s quickly see what solar farm maintenance costs. Most utility-scale solar farms in the U.S. pay $10,000–$30,000 per megawatt (MW) per year for operation and maintenance. On average, that adds up to about $221,000 per year for a 10-MW facility.1
Check out these estimated maintenance costs for 10-MW solar farms in 2020:
Solar panel maintenance includes cleaning, which runs up to 75¢ per panel—plus contractor fees and, for some operators, water hauling.3 The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that the one-time cleaning cost for a 10-MW solar farm is around $5,000.4 Most solar farms require at least one cleaning per year.
On top of that, you’ll have to pay people to maintain equipment—such as an electrician ($17,459) and inverter specialist ($70,106). Solar farms also need insurance, which NREL estimates at $9,200 per year for a 5-MW installation.5
All those costs can be a headache, but good maintenance means your equipment will run more efficiently for longer. You’ll enjoy greater energy output, higher profits, fewer breakdowns, and lower fire risks. Plus, you’ll help more people get the solar power they depend on!
You have many options to save time and money on solar maintenance and repairs. These nine tips will help you get the most bang for your buck.
Dust poses huge risks to your solar farm’s production and safety. Accumulation on solar panels is called soiling, and it’s a problem because it decreases panel efficiency. In the U.S., average solar panel soiling can decrease energy output by up to 7% per year, costing a 10-MW installation over $93,000 in lost revenue.6,7 Soiling can also be dangerous: it raises equipment’s operating temperature and, therefore, the odds of overheating or fire.
About 30% of dust settles within 150 feet of its source of origin, so a significant amount of dust that originates at your solar farm will land on or near your panels.8 Onsite dust suppression keeps panels cleaner, so they run more efficiently and produce more energy. It keeps dust out of inverters, batteries, and other equipment, thereby reducing fire risks. Finally, it keeps neighbors happy since dust won’t blow from your property to theirs.
Mitigate dust by growing plants where possible and treating access roads and firebreaks with dust suppressants.
Dust suppression will keep your panels cleaner—but not perfect. Birds will still fly over and do their business (thanks, feathered friends). And dust will still blow in from other places. A breeze of just nine miles per hour can kick up dust, and strong winds can blow it over 1,000 miles.9,10 In fact, two days after a dust storm in Texas, residents in Kentucky woke up to find their cars coated!
You can hire crews to wash solar panels manually or use automatic cleaning systems. Generally, robots and automatic systems reduce water consumption and labor—which is a good thing since solar panel cleaning consumes an estimated 10 billion gallons of water annually.11
Water can leak into equipment, especially if cleaners accidentally break a panel. So, engineers are developing waterless methods like electrostatic repulsion—which uses electricity to make dirt “jump” off panels—to reduce costs and water use. (Early trials show this works great for dust, but not thick accumulations like bird droppings.12 So, some manual washing may be necessary until technology improves!)
Whether we’re talking about cars, homes, or solar farms, preventive maintenance is proven to save money for all types of equipment or property. Preventive maintenance for solar farms includes regular inspections, thermal scans to check for hotspots that indicate cell failures or faulty connections, and torque checks to prevent electrical failures.
Staying up on these tasks reduces emergency repairs. You’ll be able to schedule repairs when they're convenient, not when equipment breaks down at the worst time. And, you’ll get to make smaller repairs that cost less—rather than letting little issues balloon into big, expensive ones. These benefits all reduce downtime and speed up repairs.
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems let you remotely monitor your solar panels and collect real-time data about their performance. You’ll get early alerts when faults or failures occur. And you can even use the system to troubleshoot and fix some problems on the spot—without actually being on the spot. This saves labor and helps you fix problems right away, no site visit needed. So, you’ll enjoy less downtime and greater productivity.
In addition to providing instant data, SCADA systems help you analyze information and generate reports so you can track backlogs and issue histories. You can use this data to recognize patterns that will shape future maintenance plans.
Of course, SCADA systems require a central computer (called a programmable logic controller, or PLC) and remote terminal units (RTUs) that you’ll have to maintain. Include them in your routine inspections and maintenance to make sure you get the most out of your system.
Just like any business in the energy industry, solar farms have to undergo—and pay for their own—inspections. (Womp, womp.) Inspection costs vary by solar farm size and location. Some sources estimate that inspecting a one-MW facility can take up to 25 hours, costing around $725, while NREL says 10-MW installations pay around $27,192 per year for inspectors’ services.13,14
It’s tempting to extend the time between inspections (or skip them), but please don’t. Inspections catch serious issues—say, an overheated panel that could catch fire if it goes unrepaired. So, instead of skipping inspections, let’s consider ways to save. One standard practice is to have the inspector sample about 25% of your solar panels, rather than every panel. Of course, even that can take months to finish for large-scale facilities.
You can save more time and money by using drones for some inspections. Drones can conduct quick aerial surveys that cost solar farm operators 30-40% less and take about one quarter of the time, with fewer workers in the field.15 Just keep in mind that a human on the ground can spot issues at eye-level (or under equipment) that a drone may miss. Using both inspection types saves you time and money while still thoroughly identifying repairs.
Groundskeeping can feel like small potatoes compared to solar panel maintenance. However, it’s equally important to your facility’s success. Grounds maintenance makes equipment accessible for electricians and technicians, thus saving time and reducing labor costs. It also helps keep the panels clean and reduce fire risks.
Some ways to save money on ground maintenance are:
Training is critical to keep costs low. Mistakes cause harm and cost you more money due to rework. But, the opposite is also true: well-trained people save you money.
For construction companies, spending just 1% of their labor budget on training decreased injuries by 26%, rework by 23%, absenteeism by 15%, and turnover by 14%. It also raised productivity by 11%.16 Now, while these numbers may vary for solar farm operators, they are telling. When you teach people how to excel at their jobs, you will all benefit.
Thoroughly and regularly train your employees, even the veterans. Ask third-party companies how they train and certify their people. Look for the ones that onboard their crews and then keep training them, since solar is a rapidly changing industry. Everyone from the electrician to the landscaper should know exactly what counts as success in their role. You can even partner with local first responders to teach them how solar farm fires differ from regular fires and what to do if one occurs.
Preparing your team to handle problems or emergencies before they come up will give them the tools they need to quickly and efficiently respond when issues arise (and trust us, they will).
As maintenance strategies go, pest control is usually lower on the list than controlling dust control, keeping the neighbors happy, or making sure your equipment works. But that last point is where pest control comes into play. Rodents like mice and rats love nesting in warm, sheltered places… like the inside of a transformer or inverter. They're willing to risk getting electrocuted if it gets them out of the weather!
And while they're in there, rodents will gnaw on anything they can find. Unfortunately, chewing on electrical components not only leads to fried field mice, it can also short-circuit your solar panels—making repairs necessary or even starting fires.
Pest control is an essential (and easy) way to protect your equipment. Regular inspections, rodent deterrents, and pest-proof conduit help prevent chewing and nesting in equipment. Some plants can even repel rodents, so you may be able to find some that double as pest control and ground cover. (Just make sure they're safe for any livestock grazing at your facility before you commit to this idea.)
As you read earlier, a 10-MW solar farm spends around $221,000 per year for operations and maintenance. To reduce those costs, we recommend finding products that can serve multiple purposes. That way, you're only paying for a few solutions—not a dozen.
One great, multi-purpose product is Perma-Zyme. This eco-friendly soil stabilizer creates a hard, concrete-like surface that resists water and erosion. Here's it helps:
Perma-Zyme is all-natural and non-toxic. So, you can enjoy green, sustainable soil stabilization that’s safe for equipment, nearby communities, and any livestock grazing at your facility.
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