Enea researchers at the Portici Research Center (Naples) have patented a low-cost process that makes the mirrors of solar systems self-cleaning, without compromising their reflective properties, reducing the cost of the electricity produced and water consumption for washing.
"The process we have developed - explains project coordinator Anna Castaldo, researcher at the Enea Energy and Thermal Storage Laboratory - allows us to tackle a problem that has so far been unsolved thanks to a coating process which modifies the wettability of the mirrors, i.e. the ability to come into contact with the water, preserving its optical properties and possibly performing a protective function with respect to erosion and corrosion".
Solar systems, we read in the online periodical Eneainform@, are generally located in semi-arid areas where the irradiation is very high and they get dirty with sand, dust, pollen and bird droppings;
their washing, essential for correct and efficient functioning, means that the cost of the electricity produced includes cleaning and maintenance operations, making water consumption one of the factors for evaluating the profitability of the systems themselves.
"To overcome this problem we thought of changing the 'skin' of the solar mirrors using a very simple technique such as the low pressure spray of a material coming from the automotive sector and from a well-established supply chain such as that of painting" continues Castaldo who is the author of the patent together with the colleagues Emilia Gambale and Giuseppe Vitiello.
The invention is applicable in all those sectors, such as photovoltaic, anti-ice/frost and outdoor lighting, where a modulation of wettability combined with transparency and resistance to bad weather is required.
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