SPF Institut für SolartechnikProjektleiterin SPF
+41 58 257 41 69mihaela.dudita@ost.ch
There is a lack of knowledge on the lifetime assessment of modern solar selective absorbers. In the project ColourAge, the performance and durability of different aluminium based coatings are studied. The combined effect of high humidity, condensation and temperature on the degradation of optical and chemical properties is assessed. Advanced techniques for materials characterization were used to identify the main degradation mechanisms: surface/interface (XPS, TEM) and chemical (EDX) analysis, as well as optical measurements (UV-Vis-NIR and FTIR spectroscopy).
Since October 2021 the Institute for Solar Technology SPF is working in an international team for the EU-funded project SophiA. The focus is on sustainable, off-grid supply solutions for healthcare facilities in Africa.
Solar-based systems will be used to provide electricity, heating, cooling and clean water in container modules for remote regions.
The overall goal of the TRI-HP project is the development and demonstration of flexible energy-efficient and affordable trigeneration systems. The systems will be based on electrically driven natural refrigerant heat pumps coupled with renewable electricity generators (PV), using cold (ice slurry), heat and electricity storages to provide heating, cooling and electricity to multi-family residential buildings with a self-consumed renewable share of 80 %. The innovations proposed will reduce the system cost by at least 10 - 15 % compared to current heat pump technologies with equivalent energetic performances. Two natural refrigerants with very low global warming potential, propane and carbon dioxide, will be used as working fluids.
The project is lead by SPF and supported by the research programme H2020 of the European Union – grant agreement ID: 814888
A 1 kW closed sorption thermal energy storage system (TES) prototype is set-up and tested at HSR-SPF. This can be charged in summer with heat from solar thermal collectors or with electricity from photovoltaic modules. The system can achieve a significantly higher volumetric energy density compared to sensible hot water storage. The closed sorption system is designed to work with different sorbent-sorbate pairs (NaOH-H₂O, LiBr-H₂O and LiCl-H₂O). Scaling to larger units with correspondingly higher power will be done in the frame of SCCER HaE (Heat and Electricity).
