On October 2, the 26th Solar Power & Chemical Energy Systems Conference (SolarPACES 2020) closed online. Worldwide experts, scholars, and representatives of well-known enterprises, as well as passionate followers, exchanged ideas of frontier CSP technologies and envisioned new prospects of CSP industry on this meeting.

At the closing ceremony of the conference, the organizers announced the SolarPACES Technology Innovation Award 2020 is awarded to ZHEJIANG SUPCON SOLAR Technology Co., Ltd. (SUPCON SOLAR)’s heliostat cleaning vehicle. SUPCON SOLAR becomes the first enterprise in Asia winning this Award for its completely independent design and R&D of CSP technology.

SolarPACES Technology Innovation Award is one of the most prestigious awards of CSP industry, aiming to honor the teams and enterprises that have made significant contributions to the technological innovation of CSP industry. The Award is elected from worldwide projects annually by the SolarPACES Executive Committee and only one candidate will be awarded.

The cleanliness of the heliostat field directly influences the Solar-electricity conversion efficiency and economical efficiency of CSP Plant. Due to long-term outdoor operation, the mirror surface of the heliostat is liable to accumulate dust, and its cleanliness drops rapidly. Therefore, CSP plants should be equipped with efficient and safe heliostat cleaning strategy and machine. At present, most CSP plants in the world adopt manual or mechanical arm cleaning vehicles, which have high operation and maintenance costs and low cleaning efficiency. SUPCON SOLAR’s cleaning technology and cleaning vehicle has successfully solved cleaning issue of heliostats. SUPCON SOLAR’s cleaning vehicle is fully automatic based on navigation system and overall heliostat field control. It can truly realize unmanned cleaning through GPS-inertial joint navigation, and infrared automatic detection technology. The cleanliness of the heliostat can be increased over 98% after cleaning for once. SUPCON SOLAR’s cleaning vehicle enables CSP plant to keep high cleanliness of solar field and low operation cost, thereby achieving better investment return. So far, this cleaning vehicle has been applied successfully in SUPCON SOLAR Delingha 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP Plant. According to the actual statistics in Delingha 50MW CSP plant where has harsh weather conditions, the cleanliness of the solar field can be maintained above 94%, and the annual solar-electricity conversion efficiency is increased by 10.6%.

Video：https://youtu.be/-MhcZYNav-4

SolarPACES Technology Innovation Award 2020 signifies that the competence of Chinese CSP technology is quickly emerging and has been well recognized by international CSP experts. In November 2019, the EPC Contract of Greece MINOS 50MW CSP Project was signed, which is a successful example of Chinese CSP industry setting foot on international stage in complete life cycle mode of " Technology+Equipment+EPC+OM+Financing". MINOS 50MW CSP Project is also a strong evidence of advancement and reliability of China’s CSP technology. In the future, SUPCON SOLAR will keep dedicating itself to the innovation and development of CSP technology and promoting CSP industry with lower cost and higher competitiveness. 

Background of the SolarPACES conference：

As the most prestigious academic conference of CSP technology and thermochemistry, SolarPACES is a world-class platform that supports researchers and practitioners to better understand CSP technology, policy, market and financing situation and progress; at the same time, it also enables participants to enjoy the research progress report by world-class experts, and stay informed of latest industry trend.

Upcoming CSP events:

10th CSP Focus China 2020 (Oct. 22-23, Beijing China) 

5th CSP Focus MENA 2020（Time TBA，Dubai, UAE）

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