Water and Cost Reduction from the Application of EDS to Facilitate Water Free Cleaning in Concentrated Solar Power
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MRS Advances © 2018 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2018.338
Water and Cost Reduction from the Application of EDS to Facilitate Water Free Cleaning in Concentrated Solar Power Ryan Eriksen1, Aykut Turkoglu2, Annie Bernard1, Nitin Joglekar2, Mark Horenstein1, Malay Mazumder1 1
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Boston University, 8 Saint Marys Street, Boston, MA
2
Questrom School of Business, Boston University, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA
ABSTRACT
Soiling in solar power generation will be a significant obstacle to its growth if a water free method cannot be found. Demand for water in arid regions will increase as more solar power generation is built, requiring more water to clean the optical surface, in turn increasing the price of water. This will lead to increased operating costs for solar power generation, and potentially disputes in locations where water is scarce. The electrodynamic screen (EDS) can reduce soiling and contribute to restoring the optical surface without the use of water. Periodic cleaning will still be required, but at reduced frequency, leading to a significant reduction in the consumption of water. In this model, it was found that a 250 MW concentrated solar power plant would have a 74% reduction in water given current laboratory production uncertainties. This indicates that EDS technology could decrease both the operating cost and the water use for solar generation plants.
INTRODUCTION One aspect of solar power generation that is often overlooked is the high water consumption necessary to clean the optical surfaces of both photovoltaic (PV) panels and concentrated solar power (CSP) mirrors. Solar power plants are located in areas with high solar irradiance in order to maximize output, but these regions are often arid, receiving little to no rainfall. Dust will then naturally deposit on the optical surface of the PV or CSP mirrors; this is called soiling. The result is a gradual decrease of the solar plant’s generation output. The decease varies highly based on region, but can range from 1 to 4.7% per day [1]. The result is the need for periodic cleaning of the optical surface. The standard industry practice is deluge washing. Deluge washing is effective in restoring the optical surface to a clean condition but it requires large volumes of water to clean the entire solar field. Furthermore, deluge washing also disrupts normal plant operations by requring that the mirror orientation be changed during cleaning. Due to the arid location of many sites, the water must be shipped over large distances. This water may also be purified to
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remove contaminants or minerals, and is often mixed with a small amount of detergent. This can lead to a graduate pollution of the soils in the solar fields. New solar fields being bu
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