• Energy Research
• 2016-2025close

AbstractThe durability of solar mirrors is a critical factor for the deployment of concentrating solar power plants. Accelerated aging test models currently applied in the polymer, electronic, and photovoltaic fields have recently been reviewed, and the issues of their application to solar mirrors have been discussed. This article first reports the results of temperature, humidity, and light irradiance accelerated aging tests performed to assess the dependent parameters of selected models from the literature. These parameters include the apparent activation energy for the Arrhenius temperature law, the Peck and Eyring coefficients for humidity models and the Schwarzschild coefficient for the irradiance law. The experimental values were then assessed for specular reflectance loss of solar mirrors. Finally, using these parameters, acceleration factors were calculated for solar mirrors. An effective temperature considering the Arrhenius degradation law was used rather than the commonly used mean temperature. This question is also addressed for light irradiance by using the dose instead of the mean value.

CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) plants technologies use the concentration of solar energy on a receiver to produce heat and then electricity by a thermodynamical process. A solar absorber material is used to convert the energy carried by light into heat. This type of material works at high temperatures (up to 1000 °C) under a highly concentrated solar flux (up to x1000 or more). Optical properties determine the performance of absorbers and it is thus necessary to measure their spectral absorptance and emittance. Solar absorptance is directly linked to the capacity of the absorber material to convert the solar flux into heat. Emittance drives the radiative thermal losses for the heated absorber and depends on the absorber temperature. The characterization of a material in operational conditions at high temperatures requires advanced apparatuses, and different measurement methods exist for the characterization of these two quantities of relevance regarding an absorber. A Round Robin Test (RRT) was conducted with the objective of comparing different new optical apparatuses and methods for measuring the emittance or luminance of various solar absorbers in air. Measurements were carried out directly at temperatures up to 560 °C while heating the samples, and also indirectly by hemispherical reflectance measurements at room temperature. In this paper, the Round Robin Test procedure to compare apparatuses is described, as well as the corresponding reflectance and emittance results on four types of materials. In addition, a discussion of some factors of influence over high temperature measurements in air and of the observed discrepancies among results from the evaluators is presented. The reliability of reflectance/emittance measurements is also demonstrated and statistics of deviations from the mean value are analysed. These allow us to infer information about measurement reproducibility. The reflectance spectra of all samples after high temperature measurements in air (up to 500 °C) do not show any significant changes.

The thermal runaway model used is a semi-empirical model based on a kinetic equation, parametrised by three parameters (m,n,p). It is believed that this kinetic equation can describe any reaction. The choice of parameters is often made without justifications. We assumed it necessary to develop a method to select the parameters. The method proposed is based on data coming from an accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) test. The method has been applied on data obtained for cells aged on different conditions. Thanks to a post-mortem analysis and simulations carried out using the parameters obtained, we have shown that the ageing mechanisms have a major impact on the parameters.

The Concentrated Solar Thermal Energy (STE) system requires components with a lifetime of more than 25 years to be profitable. Optical materials performances, such as mirrors and absorber coatings, are essential to the efficiency of the system. Any degradation of their optical properties leads to a reduced efficiency. In the frame of STAGE-STE project we are studying the durability of solar absorber coatings on metallic substrate for non-vacuum applications (in air). The definition of the test conditions was based on a critical review of the stress factors affecting the material such as temperature, humidity and saline atmosphere. The optical performances were measured over time for each sample to follow the variation of solar absorbance and emittance. For each test, a comparison of the performance criterion (PC=Δα-0.5e < 0.05) variation gives a relative resistance of each absorber to the corresponding stress factor. In this paper we will present the results of the accelerated tests campaign on the three solar absorbers samples. Materials characterization was used to analyse the degradation process occurring on each sample. A lifetime prediction based on the calculation of the activation energy has been presented for the thermal test. Finally, the relevance of each test has been discussed.

Abstract Solar mirrors for concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are expected to last at least 30 years. As this delay is far too long to obtain useful information regarding in-service degradation, accelerated approaches to weathering testing are performed by manufacturers and research laboratories in order to quickly assess the lifetime of commercial or new technologies. However, most published studies that have been performed in the CSP field are based on phenomenological approaches. The characterization of the degradation, which mostly considers reflectance loss, has rarely been linked to physical or chemical processes that are responsible for the degradation of properties. Furthermore, the general laws that can be established from these data to establish material behaviour are empirical. Ageing tests have been used for many years in other fields, particularly in the domain of polymeric materials. The impacts on the material properties of stress factors such as temperature, irradiation and humidity have been extensively studied, and models have been proposed for different kinds of materials, even though most are based on empirical observations. One of the goals of this article is to determine how these models could be applied to the weathering of solar mirrors, and as such, the goal of this paper is to provide a critical review of the various models that are most used and accepted by the scientific community. All of these models include material-dependent parameters, and the values that have been determined in these studies are reported here to list their order of magnitude.

Driven by the rise of the electric automotive industry, the Li-ion battery market is in strong expansion. This technology does not only fulfill the requirements of electric mobility, but is also found in most portable electric devices. Even though Li-ion batteries are known for their numerous advantages, they undergo serious performance degradation during their aging, and more particularly when used in specific conditions such as at low temperature or high charging current rates. Depending on the operational conditions, different aging mechanisms are favored and can induce physical and chemical modifications of the internal components, leading to performance decay. In this article, the identification of the degradation mechanisms was carried out thanks to an in-depth ante- and post mortem study on three high power and high energy commercial 18,650 cells. Li-ion cells were aged using a battery electric vehicle (BEV) aging profile at −20 °C, 0 °C, 25 °C, and 45 °C in accordance with the international standard IEC 62-660, and in calendar aging mode at 45 °C and SOC 100%. Internal components recovered from fresh and aged cells were investigated through different electrochemical (half-coin cell), chemical (EDX, GD-OES, NMR), and topological (SEM) characterization techniques. The influence of power and energy cells’ internal design and Si content in the negative electrode on cell aging has been highlighted vis-à-vis the capacity and power fade.

In the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technologies, selective solar absorbers, which have a cylindrical geometry, are submitted to strong environmental constraints. The degradation of their optical properties (total solar absorbance and total emittance) has a direct impact on the performances. In order to know optical properties of absorber tubes, we present in this article a new optical tool developed by our laboratory which fit onto commercial spectrometers. Total solar absorbance and total emittance are calculated from total reflectance spectra measured by UV-Vis and IR spectrophotometry. To verify and validate the measurement method, we performed a comparative study between flat and cylindrical samples with same surface properties.

Abstract During the life-time of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants, optical performance of solar mirrors are affected by soiling phenomenon and surface degradations, especially in desert and oceanic environments such as those prevailing in North Africa. This optical loss results from the deposition of dust particles, salts, organic materials or any other contaminants present in the solar field or around the CSP installation sites. This phenomenon depends on the different exposure sites with every location having its own meteorological and geological characteristics. Moroccan CSP sites are planned in many locations with different environmental conditions: arid, semi-arid and Saharan, with or without oceanic influence. These environmental factors can have an aggressive impact on the CSP mirrors. Indeed, large particles will tend to degrade the mirror by scratching or breaking the glass surface, while small particles have more chance to deposit on solar mirrors and thus create a soiling layer. These particles are generated from many sources (sand storm, pollution, vehicular movements, etc.) and are transported through the air. This mode of transport is determined as a function of mineral, size, shape and hardness. In this paper, we present a simple methodology for analyzing the chemical and physical characteristics of the sand particles, characterization techniques, and their appropriate laboratory equipment. All the factors previously mentioned could be critical for the CSP mirrors. That is why analyzing these data may be a key point for the industry to understand the effects of soiling and degradation on the CSP mirrors in order to increase the global economic profitability of their solar plants.