The only upkeep and maintenance I have for my solar panels is keeping the weeds at bay and cleaning them off once in awhile. Besides that, they just work. But with some recent rains and spring time in effect the weeds have grown quite a bit around them. We added a lot of lime powder last year to try to make a weed barrier, it worked on the most thick parts but other areas it just pushed through.
If we do not clear the weeds back from the panels they will shade them partially and drop my energy capture potential.
We must be careful cutting back the weeds, as these panels have glass on them. So one wrong move can crack them.
One of us cuts and the other spots to make sure we are not getting too close to wires or the glass.
I think I may try adding mulch, though I worry those could break the panels if they got kick up when weed wacking. So not sure, may just cut back as needed.
We have to do this a few times a year, but in the winter the grass does not grow so we get a break from it then.
Wires like these we have to be careful of, they are coiled up under the panels.
We also have grounding wires going from panel to panel, easy to run into if your not looking. lol
We have started to sleeve all the wires, but wild animals keep stealing the sleeving.. lol rural living problems.
For now its fine, but long term I want to get all the power wires covered.
My foreman makes quick work of the weeds using our Stihl weed wacker.
Takes us about 30 minutes, and we need to do this maybe 3-4 times a year. Depending on the rains.
He clears under the panels to carefully to avoid any wires.. I watch and point out any that are close. With 1000s of watts passing through these wires its good to have a buddy system.
Ah much better, the back panels are not really affected by the weeds, but the first two rows are. With my most recent build we had them installed higher so hopefully clearing weeds wont be as much as an issue. Also not wires laying around on the ground will be a nice change to.
We can see a thick packed layer of lime indeed stops the weeds, but you need 6-8 inches of it.
Carefully he cuts the weeds by the panels.. we hand pull whatever we cannot get safely.
Almost done, and should be good for at least a month hopefully. Wish this row was not so low but oh well. At least I will improve them in future builds knowing this.