Mapping atmospheric corrosion in coastal regions: Methods and results

Corrosion can seriously affect the service life of components for solar energy conversion. We present results of mapping the potential of atmospheric corrosion in coastal regions with the aid of a Geographical Information System (GIS). Concentration of sea salt aerosols, which are the main atmospheric pollutants in maritime coastal regions, gives an indication of the probability of the atmospheric corrosion leading to PV-module degradation. Two approaches to estimate the distribution of sea salt aerosol across the coastal regions worldwide are investigated. The first approach is a geo-statistical analysis that has been used for interpolating chloride deposition data. The second approach is based on modeling the environmental conditions, which are affecting source and distribution of airborne salinity. The comparison of these two approaches provides high accuracy in the description of the variation in airborne salinity across the coastal regions. The assessment of the atmospheric corrosion in coastal regions is based on the international standard ISO 9223. The corrosivity classification is simply defined by three parameters: SO2 pollution, airborne salinity, and relative humidity. A combination of the results from the geo-statistical approach and modeling is used; the result is a map of atmospheric corrosion in coastal regions.