Washing solar panels is one of the current popular business ideas on social media. It’s an easy pivot for anyone who already has some experience with much harder home repair handiwork involving a ladder.
The reason it’s popular is because most people don’t understand the economics at all. Someone can go door-to-door in a neighborhood offering to clean solar panels and making huge claims about improving efficiency so much that you can’t afford not to do it.
Homeowners who invested $30K in solar panels think of a $300-600 charge as an easy choice to keep their investment producing money.
My parents had someone going around their neighborhood trying to charge $50/panel for cleaning. They didn’t even climb a ladder. They sprayed washing solution from the ground. Most neighbors declined, but you could see the guy spraying down a couple roofs.
Easy way to clear $1000+ per day for knocking on some doors and pointing a hose at a couple rooftops, at least until the public figures out the scam.
Funnily enough, there was a thread a while ago here where people were fixated on the idea that you had to wash solar panels, and thus proponents are underestimating maintenance costs. I had wondered where that idea had come from, as I thought it was fairly well understood that even quite dirty panels once much of an efficiency drop…
I asked a friend with a window cleaning business and they charge about $10 a panel. At that rate I'm tempted to try it but I'm not sure if it's even worth that.
Its an easy value add for a pressure-wash / soft-wash business