Absolicon develops new treatment for anti-reflective glass

2020-10-14

In collaboration with RISE and Umeå University Absolicon is developing a new treatment for coverslips, aiming to create the world's best anti-reflective lenses. The results have been reviewed by Sweden’s innovation agency, which provides the green light and additional funds for continued work.

With a glass that lets more light through, Absolicon can deliver cheaper solar heat.

Absolicon’s business concept is to deliver complete, robotic production lines for concentrating solar collectors and materials and inputs for the production of solar collectors. Through collaboration with researchers and research institutions, Absolicon is working on new material with higher efficiency and lower costs for the solar collector’s components such as the glass, the reflector film and the receiver tube.

For glass, Absolicon’s, Umeå University and the research institute RISE work together to develop a new anti-reflective treatment. The treatment should also be less sensitive to dirt. I project was first validated a new coating technology for anti-reflective coatings on glass for solar panels. Subsequently, the new surface has been evaluated with information on optical and mechanical properties before and after climate tests.

The results show that the properties of Absolicon’s new anti-reflective treatment in many respects exceed the glasses available on the market today and the follow-up targets set for the new coating. The new anti-reflection treatment means that the glass lets through the light that is converted in the solar collector to heat and steam with temperatures up to 160 C. The fulfilled goals create that Vinnova and Absolicon continue with the work. The project has today been granted by Vinnova an additional SEK 435,000 for the final phase, which is preparing for the new glass to be able to become a production-ready and patented product.

In total, the project has now received approximately SEK 2 million in research funding from Vinnova’s call Material-based competitiveness. The goal is to create the world’s best anti-reflective glass that can both be used on Absolicon’s concentrating solar collectors and can also be sold for other solar energy applications. A commercially available glass is 1-2 years ahead and several obstacles still need to be overcome.