Effect of dust-settlements on glasscovered concentrating solarcollectors in Atacama desert

Abstract: As of today 189 countries have signed the Paris agreement which states that the mean temperature of the world should not increase with more than 2°C when compared to pre industrial levels. This causes a great shift in the energy sector sand the hunt for newer and better renewable sources continues. A such source is solar heat, which can be harvested with concentrating solar collectors. Absolicon solar collectors in Härnösand, produces a concentrating solar collector where the incident light passes though a protective glass cover and then is reflected and concentratedinto a reciever tube where the heat is transferred away. The place on earth that get the most light per year is in northern Chile in the Atacama desert, which then becomes an obvious candidate for solar heating in their mining industries if it were not for the lack of rainfall and the high amountsof dust in the area. In this report the effect of dust accumulations on the transmittance of the protective glass covers has been explored, such as the settlement rate between different angled glass surfaces were compared to rotating glass covers. Together with other effects of the dust present in Chile, such as cementation, where the dust acts ascements and stick to the surface after being moisturised. It was found that the rotating solar collectors should experience a lesser dust accumulation rate than that of the stationary solar collectors with the same glasscover placed in a 45° angle, and that the dust accumulated could experience cementation after only a few wet/dry cycles which is still a cause for the solar collectors to be regularly cleaned before this could happen.