Solar Panel Cleaning Melbourne — Grosvenor Street, Balaclava
Solar panel cleaning on Grosvenor Street in Balaclava. The array on this single-storey terracotta tile home was heavily overgrown with moss. A two-person crew worked the roof for an hour and a half, lifting the moss with plastic scrapers rather than anything abrasive, then washing the panels down.
- Location
- Balaclava 3183
- Completed
- 24 March 2025
- Duration
- 1.5 h
- Crew
- 2 techs
- Property
- Single-storey house
- Roof
- Terracotta tile
The problem
Moss had spread across the solar array on a single-storey terracotta tile roof. Moss holds moisture against the glass and shades cells unevenly, and a panel only needs part of its surface covered before the output of the whole string falls away. Melbourne winters keep tile roofs damp for weeks at a time, and that is when growth works its way from the tiles onto the panel frames.
What we did
Moss was lifted off with plastic scrapers rather than metal blades. Metal scores the anti-reflective coating on the glass, and those marks never clean out — they stay as permanent shading. The array was then washed down so the loosened debris left the roof instead of settling back onto the panels. Terracotta tile sets the pace of the work: the tiles crack under concentrated weight, so access is planned around where the roof carries load.
- Access to single-storey terracotta tile roof
- Manual moss removal with plastic scrapers
- Wash-down of the full solar array
Result
- Moss removed without damage to panel glass or roof tiles
- Panels left clear and unshaded
Nearby case studies
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Gutters and windows on Blenheim Street, Balaclava, in one visit in mid-May. Four and a quarter hours on site for one technician.
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