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Solaxer – receivers for solar process heat

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Project data

  • Project no: GRS-050/22 
  • Amount of funding: CHF 150'000 
  • Approved: 01.11.2022 
  • Duration: 02.2023 - 07.2024 
  • Area of activity:  InnoBooster, seit 2018

Project management

Project description

Today, there is as much energy used for industrial process heat as for electricity worldwide. This demand is almost entirely met by fossil fuels and has a huge environmental impact: industrial heat is accountable for 20% of the global CO2 emissions or 6.6 Gt of CO2 emitted each year. Solaxer aims to accelerate the deployment of solar heat for industrial processes (SHIP) by delivering innovative receivers for an efficient solar heat harvesting.
Solaxer receivers are coated with a selective absorber coating with superior durability to conventional absorbers (air-stable up to 400°C). The patented manufacturing process is based on non-hazardous chemicals and an energy-efficient induction heating.
Our aim is to become the leading supplier of receivers for concentrating solar collectors which can deliver solar steam and process heat up to 400°C with high conversion efficiencies. An impressive cost reduction of 70% over the last 6 years, coupled with the rise of energy prices across Europe, make solar process heat a competitive renewable solution.
Solaxer could supply receivers for more than 800.000 m2 of installed collector area over the next five years (400 MWth capacity) based on received letters of intent alone. Yearly fossil fuel savings from a 1 MWp solar field is 300.000 m3 of gas or 250.000 l of oil.

Status/Results

InnoBooster funding enables us to address the remaining research gaps and study the long-term stability and reproducibility of the coating solutions. It will advance the product development of insulated receivers with reduced thermal losses. Finally, and most importantly, it allows us to accelerate the up-scaling (process- and cost-validation) and complete the first pilot solar collectors with Solaxer receivers.

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Persons involved in the project

Anna Krammer, co-project leader, business development
Maxime Lagier, co-project leader, technical lead
Other persons involved in the project:
Giacomo David, automation engineer
Federico Turci, chemist
Andreas Schüler, head of the «Nanotechnology for solar energy conversion» group, EPFL

Last update to this project presentation  22.02.2024