& nbsp; Aluminum straps and sheets from Hydro have been used as collector backs and collector trays for some time. But now the Hydro division is also taking on the front and surfaces: For example, with Hydro substrate, an aluminum strip with a particularly low surface roughness, which is the cost-effective basic material for thin-film photovoltaic modules.

Also new is HyBridAl for concentrated use of solar power (CSP = Concentrated Solar Power). For this purpose, aluminum tape is laminated with a highly reflective and weather-resistant special film, which makes the system work much more efficiently and also lasts for a long time outdoors. Hydro also offers the tried-and-tested substructures made of extruded profiles for this reflector film, and thus all aluminum elements for a complete CSP system.

The most important new development from Hydro for solar thermal energy, however, is HySelect, the world's first selective coating that is applied to an aluminum strip using the coil coating process (patent pending, WO 2008/023054 A1). As a cost-effective variant of established PVD-CVD absorber coatings, HySelect offers a selective absorber layer with high absorption values of around 90% and emission values of 12%.

Complete provider for solar customers

Hydro will be able to equip solar heating systems from a single source: with its coated tapes and the necessary tubes, which Hydro, as the world's leading producer of extruded aluminum precision tubes, already offers.

HyGloss is still in the test stage, an alternative for large-format solar mirrors, which up to now have mostly been made of heavy, break-resistant glass. HyGloss is high-strength, but at the same time high-gloss: a characteristic of this clad aluminum composite is a high-purity aluminum mirror cover layer made of 99.99% pure aluminum, which is applied to a high-strength core material. This combination of properties - outside the reflection of the cladding layer with the inner strength properties of the core material - can produce a high-strength all-aluminum mirror if the surface is appropriately refined.

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