http://www.internetactu.net/2010/09/22/la-montee-de-la-consommation-collaborative/
Unconsumption – Page 1 Autonomous robots to be used in keeping dust off solar panels in Israel’s biggest solar field, reports timesofisrael: Most solar energy farms are located in deserts, where there is plenty of sunlight — which solar panels, of course, need a lot of. But the desert also has a lot of dust, which clogs up the photovoltaic components of the panels, making them less effective in collecting sunlight for conversion into energy. Panels have to be cleaned on a regular basis, but water in the desert tends to be expensive, if available at all — and the use of water to clean the panels raises the costs of production, making solar power too expensive to be considered anything more than a novelty…. Instead of using water to clean panels, Ecoppia’s robot cleaners are equipped with microfibers, with each robot assigned to a row of PV panels.