| Work Detail |
The Colombian company SunnyApp designs SunnyClean Bot, presented as the first and only robot in the solar energy industry developed in Latin America to improve and facilitate the cleaning of solar panels. The development, planned to clean solar panels and maintain their performance, has required a total investment of one billion Colombian pesos (more than 210 thousand dollars), based on three calls from the Colombian Ministry of Science, and has taken two years of work. . The robot, which has been working to improve nearly 200,000 solar panels, was made with components from around the world, but designed and assembled in the country. It is claimed to work autonomously for four hours, with the ability to clean 1,400 square meters per hour. Its structure is based on brushes that rotate at 3,000 revolutions per second, and, it is claimed, it serves to improve the performance of solar panels by up to 20%. Other data provided by the manufacturer abounds in that the robot mainly allows to automate the cleaning process, with the possibility of saving about 60% of water consumption. While there are talks to export the robot to Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, work is being done on several robotic designs: one for technology for silicone maintenance of the panels, another for their installation, another for lawn mowing and another for inspection of photovoltaic installations with cameras. SunnyApp is a company of entrepreneurs that in six years have installed more than 12,000 solar panels in 200 projects in more than 12 departments in the country. It employs more than 70 people directly and more than 100 indirectly. In 2019 it opened its robotics, research and innovation division. |
