Airobotics (TASE: AIRO), an Israeli manufacturer of autonomous Unmanned Aircraft (drones) and Aerial Data Platforms, and Solar Drone, an Israeli company specializing in solar farms services, have signed a binding agreement under which Airobotics will develop and supply to Solar Drone a unique solar panel cleaning drone system. The fully automated system will include a drone docking station for automatic battery replacement and cleaning fluid replenishment, enabling the system to operate continuously.
Solar panel cleaning will soon become a multi-billion-dollar market. Dirt, dust, mud and bird droppings greatly reduce solar panel efficiency, impacting power output. This means solar panels must be cleaned frequently, especially in dirty/dusty/bird-rich environments. Frequent cleaning is expensive and time-consuming, especially when panels are remote, difficult to access or difficult to clean. Examples are floating solar farms (on water), rooftop panels and sun-tracking panels.
Airobotics and Solar Drone aim to leverage their expertise in drones and solar energy systems to create and market a new drone-based cleaning solution, forecasting sales of $10 million in the first three years in Israel, Europe, India and the UAE.
Meir Kliner, Airobotics CEO and Co-Founder: “”Our agreement with Solar Drone can leverage Airobotics’ advanced core technology to help monitor and maintain solar farms. This is another step for us into a multi-billion-dollar market”.
Shmuel Yanai, Solar Drone Founder: “Today’s solutions are unwieldy, uneconomical, and unable to cope with modern solar farms. We believe the entry of Airobotics’ drone technology into the market is a game changer, with significant economic potential.”