Solar cleaning Ecoppia is a startup from Tel-Aviv that develo | Tech for Good

Solar cleaning

Ecoppia is a startup from Tel-Aviv that developed a robotic cleaning solution for solar panels.

As a photovoltaic panel gets dirty, it may lose up to 35% of its productivity. At large energy production sites, standard wet cleaning requires billions of liters of water annually and thousands of person-hours of work.

Ecoppia robots work nightly and remove soiling using rotating brushes with microfiber, without any water. They have an onboard solar module charging batteries between operations and making them energy independent. The robots clean their own solar panel and brush autonomously, and they are operated remotely - which allowed Ecoppia's clients to maintain site productivity during pandemic lockdowns.

The company says their dry cleaning services save the amount of water needed for 220 thousand people for one year. It has already served 30+ large energy production sites in India, the USA, Mexico, Chile, and Israel.

Though the idea looks genius in its simplicity, I still question the actual startup performance. In 2021, with $19 million in sales, Ecoppia reported a loss of $44 million. It looks like the team needs far more paying clients.

See the robots at work
Ecoppia website (they are hiring)

#startups #solar #robotics