Solar selective coatings and materials for high-temperature solar thermal applications

Exceptionally high-temperature in-air stability of transparent conductive oxide tantalum-doped tin dioxide

“…This value is sufficient for parabolic trough solar collectors, but it is too low for the state-of-the-art and for the next-generation of concentrated solar power (CSP) central receiver plants, which require operation temperatures of 565 °C and 800 °C, respectively. 15–18…”

“…Preliminary optical data published in a recent book chapter were promising. 18 Moreover, while XRD is used as a standard technique for structure analysis of SnO 2 :Ta, 19–29,31–36 only two papers discussed Raman data of the material. 33,35 Mientus et al 33 stated that they observed weak, broad features in the Raman spectra of as-deposited SnO 2 :Ta films and ascribed them to the glass substrate.…”

“…The primary aim of the present work is to provide evidence for in-air stability of TTO at temperatures up to 800 °C. This is required in order to extend our ongoing activities on high-temperature-stable solar-selective coatings for CSP, 18,30,44–46 and to elaborate the concept of a selective transmitter on top of a black body absorber further. 15,30,47,48 The second goal of this work is to achieve a detailed understanding of the defect structure of SnO 2 :Ta thin films.…”

Synthesis and Characterization of Multilayered CrAlN/Al2O3 Tandem Coating Using HiPIMS for Solar Selective Applications at High Temperature

“…The solar receiver converts this radiation into heat using a heat-transfer fluid (HTF), as saturated steam or molten salts, and finally, this heat generates electricity using a turbine and a generator. CSP allows the storage of heat, enabling solar thermal electricity to be dispatched on demand day and night. − The main CSP configurations are parabolic trough collector (PTC) and central receiver solar power plants. PTC operates commercially at a maximum temperature of 400 °C with the solar absorber tube encapsulated in a vacuum.…”

WAlSiN-based solar-selective coating stability-study under heating and cooling cycles in vacuum up to 800 °C using in situ Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and spectroscopic ellipsometry

“…Worldwide, energy consumption is rising with the rapid increase in industrialization and population. Since the climate change requires the replacement of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, a massive increase of renewable energies is required in the world wide share of energy [1]. In this context, research groups are exploring the opportunities of renewable energy resources in establishing the large-scale production of electricity via photovoltaics and concentrated solar power plants (CSP, also termed solar thermal electricity) [2,3].…”