Your plant runs on sun. It also runs on water.
Solar parks, CSP and molten salt plants are built where radiation is highest and water is scarcest. Every open reservoir loses that water to evaporation, grows algae that fouls filters, and draws birds onto the surface. Covex® is a hexagonal floating cover that seals the water-air interface, protecting the water you paid to bring to site.
It all starts at the water-air interface.
Wherever your raw, process or cooling water meets the air, the same three things happen, whatever the technology: water evaporates, light feeds algae, and the open surface draws in wildlife. In arid regions a reservoir can lose up to 3,400 mm of water column per year to evaporation alone.
Evaporation
The scarcest resource on a desert plant is lost in the open air: up to 3.4 m³ of water per m² of exposed surface per year. Water that was desalinated, pumped or trucked in, gone before it washes a single panel.
Algae and water quality
Sunlight on the open surface fuels photosynthesis. Algae blooms degrade water quality, clog filters and pumps, and force extra dosing across raw, treated and cooling water alike.
Wildlife and compliance
An open water mirror in an arid landscape attracts birds and fauna. Covering the surface reduces the risk of wildlife incidents and the permit findings that follow.
A cover that self-installs and self-adjusts.
The hexagonal HDPE modules float, interlock, and settle on their own to the reservoir level. They require no structure, anchoring, or maintenance. Each unit carries water ballast that keeps it in place even in extreme wind.
Less evaporation
The physical barrier of the hexagons cuts the mass exchange between water and air, with 98% coverage of the liquid surface. Every m³ saved is a m³ you do not have to source again.
Stops algae growth
By blocking light, it inhibits photosynthesis in the stored water, protecting water quality and the filters and pumps downstream.
Virtually eliminates the open water surface
With no visible reflective surface, birds and animals are far less likely to detect the reservoir and stay away, an auditable physical control.
The same cover, the value that matters to you.
The physics of the water-air interface is universal, but the priority changes with the technology and the pond. Find your plant below.
PV parks
- Water recovery in arid sites where every m³ is desalinated, pumped or trucked in: less makeup water for panel washing.
- Algae control in raw and stored water, protecting wash-water filters and nozzles from fouling.
- Wildlife exclusion on open storage reservoirs, an inspection finding that recurs at large arrays.
CSP and molten salt
- Evaporation control on raw and process water that feeds the steam cycle and mirror washing.
- Temperature stability: the air chamber in each module slows heat exchange with the air, holding process water temperature steadier.
- Algae and quality control on demineralized-water makeup storage, where fouling is costly.
Wet-cooled and hybrid plants
- Evaporation and algae control on cooling-water and reuse storage ponds held between treatment stages.
- Freeze delay on cold desert nights: water stays available longer and intake infrastructure stays protected.
- Not for terminal brine or evaporation ponds, where the goal is to evaporate. We will tell you where it does not fit.
The case isn't the cost of water. It's the value of water.
On a desert plant the water is not cheap tap water, it is desalinated, pumped or trucked at real cost, and sometimes capped by permit. The question stops being "how much does the cover cost" and becomes "what does the water it saves let us keep running".
A plant that runs short of wash or cooling water does not just spend more, it can lose generation. Against that, every cubic metre the cover keeps in the reservoir is water and output protected.
Protects generation, not just the water bill
Where supply is limited or permitted, evaporation is a risk to operation, not only a utility cost. Covex® keeps water in the reservoir so washing and cooling keep running.
Offsets new supply capacity
Adding supply by desalination, new bores or trucking is slow and expensive. The evaporation a cover recovers can offset a meaningful share of that added capacity.
Installed on the operating asset, no prep work
No site preparation, no draining, no downtime. The cover is deployed directly onto the reservoir while it stays in service, avoiding construction risk.
Evaporation losses accurately modelled
The savings are not a sales claim. Covex® quantifies the evaporation loss for your specific reservoir and climate, so the business case rests on numbers you can audit.
Fewer chemicals, cleaner circuits
By blocking light and sealing the surface, the cover reduces algaecide dosing and keeps wash and cooling water cleaner, protecting filters, nozzles and pumps.
Removable when it's time to reline
When an aging reservoir is relined, the cover can be removed, the new liner installed, and the cover put back, something a fixed geomembrane cover cannot offer.
The cover protects the water temperature both ways.
Covex® works on the water-air interface, and what it protects depends on the pond. Water held at ambient sits cooler under the cover by day, which cuts evaporation exactly when the sun is strongest. On cold nights the same air chamber slows heat loss, holding process water temperature steadier and delaying freezing. Find your case below.
It keeps water cooler under the sun.
On exposed reservoirs held at ambient temperature, the hexagons block radiation before it heats the water, so the covered surface stays several degrees below the uncovered one and loses far less water.
It holds temperature and delays freezing.
Desert and high-altitude solar sites swing cold at night. Process water carries heat the plant paid for, and open water gives it up fast. The air chamber in each module slows that heat loss, holding the water temperature steadier through the night against the swings the open air would impose.
The effect is decisive where there is freezing risk: against a -5°C environment, an uncovered surface reaches 0°C at 7.5 hours, while under Covex® the freezing point is delayed to 12 hours, 60% more time before intake and lines are at risk.
Protect wildlife and back your permit.
Large solar plants operate under environmental permits that increasingly require covering or managing open water surfaces to protect birds and local fauna. Covex® provides a continuous physical barrier that removes the visible open water surface, an auditable control that supports compliance and operational continuity.
No open water, no attraction
By covering 98% of the surface, birds are unlikely to perceive a body of water to land on or drink from. The deterrence is structural and does not rely on active devices.
HDPE grade for demanding water
High-density polyethylene withstands prolonged contact with process, treated and saline water. The formulation prioritizes environmental stress cracking resistance (ESCR), the critical factor for long service.
Independent technical validation
The system has evaporation and thermal-behavior validation through TRNSYS, ANSYS Fluent and CFD modeling, with academic institutions and water research centers.
Zero maintenance, automatic adjustment
The hexagons rearrange themselves as the level changes. There is no structure to inspect and no anchors to fail during an audit.
Data measured on site, not catalog promises.
Proven across mining, energy and industry worldwide.
The same floating-cover physics protects reservoirs across mining, energy and process industry. The priority for a solar plant is the water that keeps generation running.
Let's do the numbers.
Tell us about your reservoir and we will provide an estimate of evaporation, energy savings, and payback for your site.
A specialist will review your site data and contact you with a savings and payback estimate.
Technical Resources
Why a solar plant loses water exactly where it is hardest to replace, and what part of that loss is actually controllable: floating covers for solar plant reservoirs.