Solar Reflector Materials Degradation Due to the Sand Deposited on the Backside Protective Paints

Aránzazu Fernández-García, Adel Juaidi, Florian Sutter, Lucía Martínez-Arcos and Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro
Additional contact information
Aránzazu Fernández-García: Plataforma Solar de Almería, Senes Road, Km. 4.5, P.O. Box 22, E04200 Tabernas, Almería, Spain
Adel Juaidi: Mechanical Engineering Department, An-Najah National University, P.O. Box 7, Nablus, Palestine
Florian Sutter: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institute of Solar Research, PSA, Senes Road, Km. 4.5, P.O. Box 44, E04200 Tabernas, Almería, Spain
Lucía Martínez-Arcos: Plataforma Solar de Almería, Senes Road, Km. 4.5, P.O. Box 22, E04200 Tabernas, Almería, Spain
Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro: Department Engineering, University of Almería, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, E04120 La Cañada, Almería, Spain

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies are foreseen to be a crucial actor in the future renewable energy mix. Soil accumulation on the optical surfaces of CSP plants involves significant expenses of the operation and maintenance activities because a high cleanliness level is required to achieve proper plant revenues. Normally, only the front side of the solar reflectors is cleaned to reflect the maximum possible amount of direct solar radiation towards the receiver. However, soil deposited on the backside of the reflector could provoke degradation and might need to be considered in the cleaning strategy. As this possible degradation has never been studied, this work is dedicated to assess if the backside of reflectors should be regularly cleaned. The influence of the sand in the possible paint degradation depends on its chemical composition and the weather conditions. Therefore, several climatic conditions of artificially soiled reflector samples with different types of sand were simulated in accelerated aging tests. Concerning the results obtained, the ambient conditions simulated by the damp heat and thermal cycling tests were the only ones that produced a significant degradation of the backside paints. Also, the sand from Ouarzazate was responsible for higher deterioration.

Keywords: concentrating solar thermal technology; solar reflector material; durability; sand particle; water consumption; accelerated aging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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