Performance measurements of new silicon carbide coated reflectors for concentrated solar power applications

The new silicon carbide coated mirrors (SiC-mirrors) developed by Ibiden Co., Ltd. and tested at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology offer several advantages in concentrated solar power (CSP) structure and operation. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the reflectance and durability of the SiC-mirrors compared to high quality CSP glass mirrors in conjunction with two different applied cleaning methods. SiC-mirrors are 40 % lighter than high quality CSP glass mirrors, which leads to reduce costs of heliostat, parabolic trough or linear Fresnel structures, including assembly and installation time, lower drive power requirements, and stress during tracking operation. Lab and field tests show the SiC mirrors' reflectance is as high as the high quality CSP glass mirrors. Indeed, after 32 weeks of exposure, the high quality CSP glass mirrors' reflectance has decreased by 19 %, while the SiC mirrors' reflectance has decreased by 20 % when the brushing with water cleaning was applied. Using the brushing without water cleaning, the reflectance has decreased by 13 % and 2 % for the high quality CSP glass mirrors and the SiC-mirrors, respectively.