The Cypria Maris Hotel is located in the coastal town of Paphos, southwest Cyprus. The town is a popular tourist resort, attracting thousands of visitors every year.

Cyprus enjoys over 330 sunny days annually so solar panels installed on hotel roofs for heating water is not an uncommon sight and the Cypria Maris is no exception.

However, the hotel’s location creates problems for its solar panels. First, they face the sea, so contaminants from the sea bonding on the panels can be extremely corrosive to the surface. Secondly, the dry and dusty environment means the panels easily get dirty. Therefore they lose their efficiency unless frequent – and therefore expensive – cleaning is utilised.

The solar panels before and after treatment with the ClearShield System

ClearShield was subsequently applied onsite to the panels to protect them from the dirt and contamination. After treatment, the panels were always easier to clean and keep clean. The frequency of having to access the roof to clean the panels was also reduced, saving time.

So effective was ClearShield in resisting dirt, the efficiency of the solar panels was increased by some 11% after treatment.

A half-renovated panel shows just how dirty the unprotected panels became