Energy: ENEA patents new coatings to improve efficiency in solar energy systems

Making thermodynamic solar systems more efficient, thanks to receiving tubes with new coatings, capable of limiting heat losses at very high temperatures using metals like copper, aluminum, silver and gold. This is the goal of a new ENEA patent developed by researchers at the Portici Center (Naples).

"The new generation receiver tubes will have to operate in vacuum, that is, limiting heat losses and protecting the coatings from atmospheric agents, and at the highest temperatures possible, to increase the energy conversion yield", Salvatore Esposito of the ENEA Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department, explained.

Higher operating temperatures will also allow to create a compact and more efficient direct heat storage system, ensuring working even at night or with cloudy skies.

"In order to improve the performance of the solar cladding at a temperature of 550 ° C or higher, our patent recommends the use of metals with the lowest heat losses like copper, aluminum, silver and gold, inserting them in a multilayer structure that allows to overcome the problems of instability of these metals at high temperatures ” Esposito concluded.

The use of this innovative multilayer structure will make it possible to operate also in the air at lower temperatures (300 ° C), with the possibility of creating cheaper receivers to be used in solar thermal systems.

Thanks to this last feature, it will be possible to generate heat at more competitive costs, to be used both to power some processes of the industrial supply chains, for instance in the pharmaceutical, food and textile sectors, and for domestic heating and cooling.

For more information please contact:

Salvatore Esposito, ENEA - Solar Thermal, Thermodynamic and Smart Network Division, salvatore.esposito@enea.it

Patent data sheet: http://industria.enea.it/news/news-2020/brevettato-rivestimento-assorbitore-solare-spettralmente-selettivo-dalle-alte-prestazioni