RESEARCH ARTICLE | JULY 25 2019

Innovative approach to perform optimized and highly

efficient operation & maintenance activities for 100MW-scale
CSP plants 
Mohammed Lamghari  ; Abderahman Kriouile; Hicham Bouzekri; Samir Rachidi

AIP Conf. Proc. 2126, 120009 (2019)

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5117627

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 Innovative Approach to Perform Optimized and Highly
Efficient Operation & Maintenance Activities for 100MW-
Scale CSP Plants
Mohammed Lamghari1, 2, 3, a), Abderahman Kriouile1, 3, b), Hicham Bouzekri4, c) and
Samir Rachidi4, d)
1
Farasha Systems, 36 Street Oum Errabia, Agdal, 10090, Rabat (Morocco)
2
SupMTI, 98 Street Allal Ben Abdellah, 10000, Rabat (Morocco)
3
ENSIAS, Mohammed V University, IMS Team, ADMIR Laboratory, Rabat IT Center, Rabat (Morocco)
4
Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN), N°50 Rocade Sud, Rabat (Morocco)
a
)Corresponding author: lamghari@farasha.net
b
)kriouile@farasha.net
c
)h.bouzekri@masen.ma
d
)Refer to footnote1

Abstract. To achieve economic competitiveness and move quickly towards grid parity with fossil electricity, parabolic
trough CSP power plants, especially recent projects, are usually deployed on large scales (~100MW). This makes the

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operation and maintenance (O&M) of those plants more challenging. This paper presents an innovative solution developed
by the startup Farasha Systems to help optimize O&M within those large solar power plants. This solution is based on
processing visible and thermal images taken from the solar field. The solution mainly consists of an embedded system with
thermal and visible cameras as well as a built-in computer. Also, in this work, the methodology used to perform such
inspection is introduced together with examples of inspection results during its practical applications in NOORoI Parabolic
Trough CSP Plant in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

INTRODUCTION
Parabolic trough collector (PTC) is the most mature and deployed technology in concentrated solar power (CSP)
plants around the world, around 85% of capacity [1]. To achieve a good optimization in terms of specific costs,
parabolic trough CSP power plants require the use of large areas of land. Therefore, operators dealing with such power
plants are challenged with their day-to-day operation and maintenance (O&M) activities. This results in continuous,
systematic and probably redundant inspections for curative and preventive maintenance for the whole solar field
[2][3].

The goal of this work is to introduce a new method to optimize and reduce O&M costs at power plants employing
PTC technology. Our approach has the specificity to be affordable solution, designed to meet the needs of large-scale
solar field operators. For example, our inspection does not interrupt the production of any part of the solar field, and
is is combining the advantages of both airborne and car-based inspection techniques. By going through the solar field
- using a car or drone-, the developed system can detect and process different types of defects that may be present on
mirrors or receivers in PTC plants -without defocusing scanned loop as illustrated in Figure 3. Those defects can vary
from soiling aspect and cleanliness status, to cells or mirrors/receivers’ breakdowns. The feeds of data collected are
sent to a remote server where it is processed, stored and shared with the SAP tools used by plant operator teams. This
helps them to have relevant input to carry out effective, prioritized and quick O&M operations on the solar field.
1
Dr. Samir Rachidi's current affiliation is: Institut pour la Recherche en Energie Solaire et en Energies Nouvelles - IRESEN, 16 Avenue S.A.R.
Sidi Mohamed, Rabat, Morocco. His current email address is rachidi@iresen.org

SolarPACES 2018
AIP Conf. Proc. 2126, 120009-1–120009-9; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5117627
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1866-0/$30.00

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 The brief results presented in this paper are based on the survey conducted by Farasha on targeted subfields –
area- of NOORO1 plant in 2017.

SOLAR FIELD’S DEFECTS TACKLED BY FARASHA’S INNOVATIVE SOLUTION

CSP O&M teams dedicated to solar field monitoring are used for regular inspection tasks. They follow a precise
and a systematic daily planning to check the status and performances of solar field components. The main issues that
these teams are focusing on are the:
 Tracking thermal losses at swivel joints (flexible), HCE joints, and HCE tubes
 Detection of soiling levels
 Investigating of metallic structure alignment
 Observing the integrity of the solar field components

In NOORO1, each issue is addressed by a dedicated team of 2 to 4 people. Besides, apart from the
reflectivity measurements for soiling qualification, all those operations rely on the naked-eye evaluation of the
operator and tools and sensors that only give an overview of solar field stat.

Since 2014, Farasha had been carrying R&D efforts to develop a tailored solution to tackle efficiently all those
O&M issues and beyond. These R&D developments, carried out in close collaboration and discussions with
key partners such as Masen, Acwa Power and Nomac, resulted in many proof of concepts and prototypes and,
eventually, a final commercial product [see Figure 2] that has been successfully tested in the solar field of the 160MW
NOORO1 in 2017.

This product acts as a multi-service platform able to address, in one shot, most of the issues stated above. The main
added values of this tool are:
 Drastically reduced inspection time

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 Quantification of the different parameters, mainly the thermal losses
 Reliable and consistent data (use of high sensitive and cutting edge hardware: HD visible and thermal
cameras, etc., rather than the operator naked eye)
 Automation of the data processing and analysis
 Modular and flexible tackling of one or many O&M issues at once

Those advantages were successfully verified during the inspection of the NOORO1 solar field, which was a major
milestone in the deployment of this innovative service by the startup Farasha. It has proven its relevance by detecting
different defects (Thermal losses, Soiling level, Tracker calibration) under real operating conditions (July and August,
Ouarzazate, Morocco) in a real commercial 100-megawatts scale CSP plant.

From the power plant operator’s point of view, this inspection was an opportunity to verify the ability of Farasha’s
solution to tackle, partly or totally, the challenges they are facing in their everyday O&M. In addition, it has opened
to them new possibilities to use this product and service to address other challenges and reshape completely their usual
way to handle O&M activities.

METHODOLOGY OF THE SOLAR FIELD INSPECTION

Software
The flowchart in Figure 1 sums up the usual methodology followed during the inspection. The first step consists
in acquiring data from the solar field components, in the form of thermal and visible images. Those pictures are linked
to their GPS positions in order to be able to report the exact location of the defect to the O&M team when detected.
The system can also withstand other positioning alternatives, depending on local geographic references defined by the
user or other visible tags.

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 Once captured, the images are then processed following dedicated and in-house developed algorithms. Specific
recognition patterns and pre-set criteria and threshold values for the different parameters, such as temperatures,
angles, reflectivity, etc. are used to detect the defect occurring in the solar field element being inspected. Data
processing can be performed either locally or remotely via a distant server on a real time basis.
When processed, the data is analyzed to fit a predefined report format that respects the user’s data visualization
and frequency preferences. Alarms and notifications can also be issued to the operators on the ground and in the
control room, via multiple communication platforms and protocols. The analysis results can also be interfaced with
the O&M information system and software deployed by the plant operator. This feature enables the technicians,
engineers and managers to get a business-as-usual decision aid tool, fully integrated with their daily working media.

Data Acquisition Data processing Data Analysis Data Storage

Thermal Images Dedicated Algorithms Reports & Data Reversible &

Vizualisation Efficient
Visible Images
Recongnition Patterns
Alarms &
Notifications Feedback &
GPS Positions Learnings
Pre‐defined Criteria

FIGURE 1. Workflow of Farasha inspection process

Finally, the information is then stored in an efficient manner in order to make it easy to reuse and extract if any
feedback is needed in the future. The stored data is also a valuable source of learning and improvements of the initial

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algorithms implemented. It can also act as an archive tracking the defect record of all solar field components,
which shall be included in each data analysis report.

Hardware
The system used in the NOORo1 solar field inspection consists of the following hardware:
TABLE 1. Hardware details
Component Details
Thermal camera  Industrial compact IR camera
 Resolution of 382 x 288 pixels
 Frame rate up to 27 Hz
 Height thermal sensitivity of 40 mK
 temperature range of -20°C up to 900°C
 Spectral range: 7.5 to 13 µm
Visible camera  Resolution of 8 MP
GPS detector  2.5m accuracy
 Supported satellites: SBAS, WAAS and EGNOS
 Up to 20Hz update rate
Built‐in computer  An embedded single board computers (SBC)

A first system was mounted to a car via an in-house apparatus developed by Farasha. It consists of a fixed metallic
frame (screwed to the car), holding a slider. The slider enables the system to move vertically. The system is hooked
to the slider via a rotating arm, and, therefore, is given freedom to move vertically and to rotate around two axes (360°
following the panoramic and tilt axes) [Figure 2]. This setup enabled a good user-experience and satisfactory handling
of the whole apparatus, when capturing both visible and thermal images. For instance, it allowed inspecting,
simultaneously, two consecutive rows at different heights and angles.

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 To carry out the inspection, once the image settings were made, the car was driven in the middle of a CSP loops
and has a two-way trip. The course takes approximately 2 to 3 minutes with a speed of 15 km/h, in order to reduce the
vibrations, which may occur due to the difficult terrain in those parts of the solar field (no asphalt roads).

The same system is embeddable into an aerial drone. In spite of having extra logistics due to battery replacements
and charging, the use of drones brings substantial positive impact to the whole operation. The main advantage is the
considerably reduced inspection time by covering large areas of the solar field in a single flight, including difficult-
to-access zones. Besides, the use of a drone-based system reduces the environmental footprint of the inspection
operation, as well as the human resources needed (avoid having an additional car driver). However, following our
experience, it is recommended to use both vehicles on a complementarity basis.

Capture Sys.
(Capture and Control
+
Geolocalization Sys.)

Mechanical support
(fixed and motorized)

(a) (b)

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FIGURE 2. Farasha systems solution embedded on car (a); Morning scan trajectory for car solution (b)

RESULTS
NOORO1 inspection by Farasha’s innovative solution led to interesting results concerning the efficient detection
and reporting of solar field defects detected. All of these defects are reported in the literature and/or commonly known
by CSP professionals and researchers. Besides, the tests concluded the relevance and the effectiveness of a car-based
inspection solution as well-as it complementarity with an airborne inspection approach.

Thermal Losses
Heat Collector Tubes

The Heat Collector Elements/Tubes (HCE) are critical components of a PT CSP plant. They are indeed responsible
for collecting the concentrated light reflected by the mirrors and transmitting it to the Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF).

HCE can witness a loss in the vacuum inserted between the glass envelope and the inner steel tube. This vacuum
break causes a leakage of energy (heat) to the ambient environment, resulting in a lower thermal efficiency of the solar
field, and, hence, in lower overall plant performances and financial yield. The occurrence reported in Figure 3, shows
the phenomenon at its beginning since the outer temperature registered is 113°C compared to the usual 390°C of the
HTF. The figure shows clearly the vacuum losses in this collector, which caused thermal losses, compared to the
adjacent tube (right in the figure), which is at ambient temperature (~45°C).

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 FIGURE 3. Thermal losses at the absorber tube

Faulty HCE tubes can be the premise of a tube breakage and/or HTF leakages, which represent a serious safety
risk to the CSP plant. Therefore, early stage detection of those tubes enables O&M teams to replace them on time,
look for the real causes (residual mechanical constraints, bad welding, etc.), and avoid potential bad consequences,
such as productivity interruptions or accidental fires.

Losses at Tube Joints and Ball Joints

Thermal efficiency of the solar field faces also challenges at all thermally insulated areas. Among those critical
areas are the junctions between two consecutive HCE tubes (tube joints) or between two consecutive Solar Collector
elements/Assemblies (SCE/SCA). This thermal insulation shall be replaced very often following a preventive

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maintenance planning and schedule.

Similar to the detection of thermal losses at the HCE, Farasha’s system has been able to detect thermal losses at
different joint levels, as shown in Figure 4.

FIGURE 4. Thermal losses at Ball joint

Improvement of the Thermal Insulation Replacement Operation

The use of Farasha’s approach has led to a striking finding concerning the operation of replacement of thermal
insulation. Indeed, the current practice consists in opening manually each junction box, eye-checking the integrity of
the thermal insulation and making the insulation replacement if needed. Then the operator has to close the junction
box again. This operation has to be carried out under a defocusing of the solar loop, which results in a productivity
interruption. Besides, it should be repeated ~150 times per loop (number of junctions per loop).

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 FIGURE 5. Thermal losses at HCE joint of a row with new bandage and a row with old bandage

As shown in Figure 5, a quick thermal scan of the loop by our system was able to point out the real faulty joints,
with broken thermal insulation (5 occurrences). This operation may usually take up to 3 days per loop for an O&M
team of 3 people. The use of our methodology can reduce the time needed to a couple of hours, which is a huge gain
in performances and cost effectiveness.

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This example shows how effective the overall CSP O&M activities could become, by implementing Farasha’s
innovative solution.

Soiling Levels of Reflectors

This aspect is also critical to the power plant overall performances. CSP plant operators give a high priority to the
cleanliness level of the reflectors by following a tight schedule of cleaning courses carried out by dedicated trucks
each night.

Our approach had been integrated to the daily tasks of the “reflectivity team”. Indeed, reflectivity values had been
correlated to visible images at different levels of soiling, by using advanced image processing algorithms. Therefore,
we were able to perform a mapping of a large part of the solar field with a segmentation of reflectivity ranges as shown
in Figure 6.

This quick result enables O&M teams to prioritize effectively the nocturnal cleaning activities, resulting in a better
solar field availability rates, and, consequently in better plant performances.

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 FIGURE 6. Reflectors soiling level on a subfield -Loops- based on a “classification algorithm” – With real measured
reflectivity values

Collector’s’ Alignment and Calibration

During the solar field inspection, we were also able to suggest a methodology to perform overall structure
alignment of a complete SCA. This defect results in bad optical performances of the reflectors, which strongly affects
the overall plant performance.

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Two types of misalignments can be detected by our system:
 Relative misalignment among SCEs due to torsion effect between the closest and the farest SCEs from
the actuators or due to offset between the two trackers of the SCAs of the same row.
 Absolute misalignment of a row.

To detect the first type of misalignments, Farasha’s approach consists in edge recognition technique used in image
processing. Torsion between two SCE is easily qualified and quantified using this method [Figure 7].

As for the second type of misalignment, a profile picture (image processing algorithm via edge recognition
technics) is taken at one extremity of the SCA, and the different angles are calculated via image processing. Then the
information obtained is compared to the instant orientation given by solar tracking algorithms used by the plant
operators. Satisfactory results were found during our solar field inspection. [Figure 8]

FIGURE 7. Misalignment between the modules of one SCA can

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 FIGURE 8. Absolute alignment -calculated by comparing the theoretical position

Integrity of Solar Field Elements

This aspect consists in the detection of the following faults while scanning the solar filed with:
 Cracked and broken mirrors
 Broken HCE tubes
 HTF and other fluid leakages

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FIGURE 9. Broken mirrors

CONCULUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES

A solar field inspection had been successfully performed in NOORO1 CSP plant, using Farasha’s
innovative system. This approach had achieved a quick, automated and efficient detection and reporting of well-known
CSP solar field defects, mainly: thermal losses, soiling levels, and structure misalignment and calibration. For all those
issues, Farasha had proved that its approach is a substantial step forward to achieving a highly optimized O&M in a
100 MW scale CSP plant. Farasha’s added value is believed by the CSP professionals to make huge savings in the
plant O&M budget, but also a great increase in its financial turnover.

As a perspective, Farasha is pursuing with its partners the deployment to a full scale of this tailored innovative and
modular service, in the whole NOOR Ouarzazate Solar Complex (510MW), both in car and drone-based systems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Farasha Team acknowledges the valuable support of Masen, Acwa Power and Nomac for guaranteeing access to
NOORo1 Plant, as well as for the performance and design of field tests that led to this work.

The authors would like to thanks specifically M. AMRANE and M. HIMDI from MASEN for their continuous
support for this project.

Farasha would also like to acknowledge the financial support of the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ) through
the MVP22 (2016) and DKTI programs.

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 REFERENCES
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improvement program for concentrating solar power plants. 1999.
3. SATTLER, Johannes, ECKSTEIN, Julian, et O’CONNELL, Bryan. Advanced CSP teaching materials.
In: Operation and Maintenance”. In DeutschesZentrumfuerLuft-und Raumfahrt eV MENA Teaching Materials
Implementation Workshop. 2011.
4. KRIOUILE, Abderahman, 2016, Système de Détection Automatique de salissure dans les installations à énergies
solaire. FR3046511. 2017. France.

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