Arkema today inaugurates, together with the CNRS laboratory PROMES, the “MicroSol-R” solar micro-power plant on the Odeillo-Font-Romeu site (Pyrénées, SW France) which operates with a JARYSOL heat-transfer fluid specially developed by the Group on its Jarrie site (Isère, SE France).
The “MicroSol-R” solar micro-power plant, inaugurated today on the Odeillo Font-Romeu site, operates using parabolic mirrors which concentrate the sun’s rays towards a pipe inside which JARYSOL circulates, a heat-transfer fluid specially developed by ARKEMA for this plant, which produces not only electricity but also refrigeration (ice, air-conditioning), or heat which can be stored.
This energy versatility is the main asset of solar micro-power plants, which consequently benefit from interesting business prospects as they can meet local power production needs in remote areas lacking infrastructures or developed electricity networks, or even water resources as the steam produced and stored can be used in desalination plants to process seawater into drinking water.
The JARYSOL heat-transfer fluid used in the solar power plant helps optimize the efficiency of heat production and storage. With its outstanding thermal, chemical and environmental properties, this fluid, especially designed and approved for solar applications, was developed in the Group’s laboratories in Jarrie and Pierre-Bénite and is produced on the Jarrie site.
As part of its Open innovation initiative, Arkema has conducted this development jointly with all public and private partners of the Equipex SOCRATE project, accredited “Projet d’Avenir”.
With this new solution, Arkema expands its global and innovative product offering in favor of renewable energies. The Group is already a major player in photovoltaics with its Kynar® PVDF films used for the backsheet of photovoltaic cells and the Apolhya® Solar nanostructured copolymers designed for the encapsulation of module components, and increasingly in wind power with the Elium® recyclable thermoplastic resin for the manufacture of wind turbine blades and nacelles.