World’s First Self-Cleaning Solar Park Is in Israel – David Shamah (Times of Israel)
(dailyalert.org, Mar. 27, 2014)

    This week the Kibbutz Ketura solar park, jointly owned by Siemens AG and Israel’s Arava Power, became the world’s first self-cleaning solar energy production facility.

   Each night, the 20-acre facility is cleaned by 100 Israeli-made robots, which brush and clean the hundreds of solar panels.

    Besides sun, deserts have lots of dust, and that dust can reduce a solar panel’s efficiency by as much as 35%.

    The robots use microfibers and air to push the accumulated dirt off the panels without using scarce water.