Kontakt

Dr. Matthias Krause

Lei­ter Nano­materialien und Transport
matthias.krauseAthzdr.de
Tel.: +49 351 260 3578

Project descriptions

2015-2018 H2020 RISE EU project "Framework of Innovation for Engineering of New Durable Solar Surfaces (FRIENDS2, GA-645725)",Project No. 2832152202

FRIENDS2 is a new Marie Skłodowska-Curie staff exchange project (RISE scheme) within Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, which promotes international and inter-sectorial collaboration between two academic partners (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, a top research institution from Germany, and Cranfield University from the United Kingdom) and two industrial partners (Metal Estalki, a Spanish SME, and the international company Abengoa) to develop new coatings for the thermo-solar power industry. On 22nd January 2015, the FRIENDS2 project took off with all the partners getting together in Seville, Spain, to discuss the next steps (Figure 1). The two-day opening meeting was hosted by Abengoa Research, where the project objectives and specific roles were discussed and defined.

kick-off-meeting FRIENDS2

The main scientific topic of FRIENDS2 deals with the development of new materials to be used in Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology. CSP is a commercially available technology in the field of renewable energy, which is based on the conversion of concentrated solar energy into thermal and subsequently electrical energy. The main requirements for future development and application of CSP technology are the improvement of its overall efficiency and the reduction of costs per kWh. The former objective can be directly achieved by increasing the operation temperature of CSP tower plants from today’s maximum of 550°C to 800°C. The cost reduction will result indirectly from the higher energy efficiency, the improved durability, and moreover from lower manufacturing prices of the key components. The key components responsible for the solar to thermal energy conversion efficiency of CSP tower plants are the solar absorber, the concentrating mirrors, and the heat-transfer fluid transport and storage system. Their performance improvement and durable long-term temperature and chemical stability are the scientific objectives of the FRIENDS2 project. These objectives are covered within scientific work packages 1-4 of the project. In work package 1 new solar absorber coatings and new concentrating mirrors with multilayer coatings are developed. Work package 2 deals with the design and manufacture of innovative corrosion resistance coatings for heat storage materials. The coatings developed in work package 1 and 2 are being characterized by advanced experimental techniques (including ex-situ and in-situ analysis) within the activities of work package 3. The in–field testing of the selected coatings (work package 4) will start in the second year of the project. The following sections 2-5 highlight the main scientific achievements of the project. Finally, sections 6 and 7 summarize the dissemination and management activities of the project addressed in work packages 5 and 6, respectively.