ANti-SOiLing COating for heliostats - ANSOLCO

Project summary

One of the main problems of CSP plants located in arid areas with lack of water is soiling, which drastically decreases the mirror reflectance. The optical performance of the heliostats is a key factor to achieving low electricity costs: a 1% decrease in reflectance directly leads to 1% increase in the cost of electricity generated. Moreover, cleaning heliostats uses 10% of the water consumption in a CSP plant. ANSOLCO project aims to develop a low cost and durable anti-soiling coating based on sol-gel for heliostats, with the objective of reducing the water consumption and number of maintenance operations, and increasing the electricity production of the plant. The ANSOLCO coatings will reduce the need for cleaning by 40% and increase the average reflectance by 4% in locations with major soiling problems. The water consumption for cleaning at CSP plants is expected to drop by 45% with the anti-soiling coatings, with reduction in both of cleaning operations frequency and labour costs.