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Abstract—Energy-yield loss caused by soiling of the PV mod- nanostructured surface on the optical collectors for reducing
ules and CSP mirrors in utility-scale power plants would result adhesion of dust particles to improve cleaning efficiency with
in unsustainable demands for fresh water needed for cleaning. low water use. This is a passive method for modifying the
This paper reviews the progress of the electrodynamic screen
(EDS) film technology for frequent water-free cleaning with low surface for making solar collectors easily cleanable. Current
energy requirements. EDS-based cleaning would maintain high SH coating process suffers from three technical challenges: (1)
optical efficiency ensuring long-term sustainability of TW-scale water is still needed for cleaning, (2) outdoor lifetime of the
plants located in arid lands. Principles, modeling, construction, SH film is very limited to few months unless it is frequently
and lamination of the EDS films on modules and mirrors and cleaned (3) application of coating in a large-scale is yet to be
experimental data showing power output restoration are pre-
sented. Current challenges in production and meeting outdoors established.
durability of the EDS films are discussed. Application of transparent electrodynamic screens (EDS)
Index Terms—Solar collectors, cleaning, dust impacts, electro- [4]–[6] is an emerging method for cleaning solar collec-
dynamic screen, optical efficiency. tors. The method can be for used for cleaning solar pan-
els, parabolic troughs, and heliostats. Studies to date show
I. I NTRODUCTION feasibility of EDS film integration or retrofitting on optical
For high optical efficiency of solar collectors such as surface of solar collector for maintaining high transmission or
PV modules and concentrating mirrors must be kept clean reflection efficiency without requiring water. EDS is an active
continuously, if possible, against dust deposition that reduces method that applies electrostatic force to lift dust particles
efficiency of light transmission to the solar cells or reflection and expel them from the optical surface. Current lab-scale
of radiation by concentrating solar power (CSP) mirrors to the prototype EDS films, retrofitted on solar panels or mirrors,
receiver. Dust deposition on solar collectors is ubiquitous and have shown capability of maintaining optical transmission or
causes a major loss in energy-yield in arid lands [1]–[3]. To specular-reflection efficiency higher than 90% of its initial
maintain optical efficiency of solar collectors close to 95% values under clean condition. Optical surface laminated with
of its initial value under clean condition, frequent cleaning is an EDS film can remove more than 90% of the dust deposited
needed at intervals depending upon the rate of dust deposition on the surface when EDS is activated for less than 2-minutes
at the plant site. per cleaning cycle. Being an electrodynamic dust removal
Washing solar collectors with water and detergent is the best process, the EDS cleaning method is designed primarily for
method for cleaning. The conventional approach for cleaning removal of dust in large-scale solar plants located in semi-arid
collector in utility-scale plants is to use a large truck with a and desert areas where the atmosphere is often dry and dusty
water tank and a pump system for spraying deionized water with very low rainfall.
on the collector surface. Robotic cleaning with mechanical This paper presents a brief review of the progress and
brushes is used for smaller solar plants that require less water. the potential of the EDS film technology for mitigating dust
However, manual or robotic cleaning with water is often a impact on solar collectors with water-free cleaning and the
critical problem where conservation of water is needed, such as current technical challenges for high efficiency and durability.
in areas where water is scarce. In addition, these methods are
both labor and energy intensive and are disruptive to routine II. E LECRODYNAMIC S CREEN (EDS)
plant operations. If the global solar-power output is to increase An EDS film [7]–[11] consists of rows of transparent,
to hundreds of gigawatt (GW) levels, as is envisioned, efficient parallel electrodes embedded within two transparent dielectric
operation of solar plants would result in an unsustainable films, as shown in Fig. 1. The sun-facing side is a trans-
demand for fresh water. Unless a water-free or a low-water parent ultrathin flexible glass (Corning
R
Willow
R
Glass)
cleaning method is established, expansion of solar plants may [12], which serves as superstrate for depositing transparent
lose public support in areas suffering long intervals of drought. conducting electrodes. The electrodes are encapsulated by
One of the promising low-water based cleaning processes using a transparent pressure sensitive adhesive film (3M
R
is to apply a transparent superhydrophobic (SH) coating with optically clear adhesive (OCA) film [13]), the opposite side
B. Particle Charge
Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA)
One important parameter in the simulation is the value of
particle charge q or, alternatively, the particle Solar Module
charge-to-mass
ratio q/m, where m is the particle’s mass. While sand dust
can acquire charge in nature, this value can change, sometimes
Fig. 1. Construction of a transparent EDS film. The solar module represents
even reversing sign,
a photovoltaic (PV)when
panel the
or a particle impacts
reflecting mirror in a the panel surface,
concentrated solar power
(CSP)glass
typically system.or sometimes a protective polymer coating.
Here also we considered two cases: (1) both top and bottom
surfaces of the electrode are reflecting and (2) only top surface TABLE IV
is reflecting and the bottom surface is absorbing. The results D UST REMOVAL EFFICIENCY (DRE) FROM DUST MASS MEASUREMENTS
OF AN EDS FILM LAMINATED SOLAR PANEL
show that if the electrodes have reflection efficiency 90% or
higher on both sides, the SR loss would be less than 3%. Experimental m0 mr DRE
Run
TABLE II 1 0.0461 0.0061 86.8%
FRED M ODELING OF SPECULAR REFLECTIVITY OF EDS FILM WITH
REFLECTIVE ELECTRODES WITH DIFFERENT REFLECTIVITY FOR TWO 2 0.0500 0.0063 87.4 %
ELECTRODE GEOMETRIES . 3 0.0845 0.0105 87.6%
4 0.1076 0.0118 89.0%
Electrode w = 42.5 µm w = 80 µm
Geometry h = 3.5 µm h = 0.95 µm 5 0.1000 0.0129 87.1%
g = 500 µm g = 700 µm 6 0.0857 0.0074 91.3%
Electrode Bottom Bottom Bottom Bottom 7 0.0697 0.0062 91.1%
Reflectivity Reflecting Nonreflecting Reflecting Nonreflecting
R Loss Loss Loss Loss 8 0.0779 0.0079 89.8%
0 — 0.8257 — 0.8144 9 0.1076 0.0104 90.3%
0.6 0.9229 0.8739 0.9114 0.881 10 0.0781 0.0095 87.83%
0.7 0.9391 0.8820 0.9307 0.8923
0.8 0.9554 0.8901 0.9508 0.9037
0.9 0.9717 0.8982 0.9718 0.9151 Percentage restoration was determined from the ratio of
0.95 0.9798 0.9022 0.9827 0.9208 Isc restored/Isc under clean optical surface and (2) the dust
removal efficiency (DRE) of the EDS-solar panel (Table 4)
C. Dust Removal Efficiency and Solar Panel Power Output was measured from the ratio of (m0 − mr )/m0 where m0
Restoration Measurements is the dust mass deposited on the panel with surface area
approximately 100 cm2 ) and mr is the dust mass remaining
An environment-controlled test chamber was used for eval- on the panel after EDS activation.
uation of all laboratory-scale EDS films. The humidity inside
the chamber was controlled using a microcontroller to activate
B. Specular Reflectivity Restoration (SRR) Measurements
either a humidifier or a dehumidifier. For humidification, a
nebulizer was used for increasing moisture content within the Specular Reflectance (SR) of a solar mirror restored after
chamber. A vibratory sieve (No. 170) with nominal openings repeated deposition of test dust obtained from Sandia National
of 88 µm was used to sieve and deposit JSC-1A dust simulant Laboratories solar field and EDS-based removal (Fig. 7).
[17] uniformly over the EDS-PV sample. The EDS film was constructed with silver nanowire (AgNW)
electrodes, printed on a Corning
R
Willow
R
Glass film as
V. R ESULTS & D ISCUSSIONS
shown in Fig. 5. The EDS was operated with 1.2 kV 3-phase
A. Restoration of Short Circuit Current 5 Hz pulsed voltage.
Experimental data on the restoration of Isc , which is propor- An EDS film with reflective chrome electrodes (65% reflec-
tional to the power output of a solar panel and dust removal tivity) was constructed and laminated on a mirror. The specular
efficiency, are shown in Tables III and IV. Short circuit current reflection efficiency was measured and was found to be 91.5%,
Isc was measured (1) under clean condition, (2) after dust which is close to the model prediction shown in Table II.