Authors
Claret, Ariadna; Escamilla, Marta
Abstract
High efficiency concentrated solar power (CSP) architectures have numerous benefits: environmental protection, zero-carbon process, energy security and economic growth. Moreover, CSP has advantages in front of PV. Nonetheless, this promising technology must be improved. This abstract presents the results of the environmental assessment of the IN-POWER project. The aim of this project is to develop high efficiency solar harvesting CSP architectures based on holistic materials and innovative manufacturing processes while reducing the environmental impact associated to CSP architectures. To achieve this goal, the mentioned below materials and components have been developed: 1. A light polymeric mirror with high optical and mechanical performance, with self-healing and anti- soiling. 2. An optimized and lighter mirror support structure using composites. 3. New robust absorber coatings for non-vacuum operations. 4. New high spectrally selective coatings for vacuum operations to work at high and low-mid temperatures. 5. High-operating-temperature thermal storage materials for TES increasing up to 3 times the thermal capacity, together with new TES system configurations. Results obtained from the environmental assessment reveal that in general, IN-POWER solution brings important environmental benefits compared with reference CSP architectures. Highlights the polymeric mirror, that have been demonstrated to have lower environmental impacts that metallic foils and glass mirrors for most of the impact categories studied, thanks to its lightness, reuse potential and lower cleaning requirements. To stand up, also, the TES materials and systems, and specifically, the thermocline TES system configurations designed within the project, that bring important environmental trade-offs in comparison with reference systems. As a decision-making tool, finally, a list of improvement measures and recommendations have been made, to drive sustainability in CSP architectures.