Vehicle for cleaning mirrors in installations for collecting solar thermal energy

A vehicle for cleaning collector mirrors in installations for collecting solar thermal energy, in which the collector mirrors are held to the ground by a set of supports arranged at normally regular distances, which hold a shaft around which said mirrors are adapted to turn, said mirrors being aligned in rows normally facing north-south and having a collecting surface with a concave section, said collector mirrors being adapted to face east to west during the day, said concave section of the collecting surface having a parabolic section reflecting solar radiation onto a collector tube which covers a focus of a parabola formed by said mirrors, and said vehicle comprising:

• an operating cab;
• a body for housing and holding different items for cleaning said collector mirrors;
• a rolling system for moving the vehicle;
• a clean water tank;
• an assembly for discharging clean water;
• at least one body for spraying clean water onto the surfaces of the mirrors;
• a set of lifting columns;
• and
• supports for providing at least one of:
• at least one cleaning assembly and
• at least one drying assembly able to slide along said lifting columns;
• at least one said cleaning assembly formed of a rigid structure which in a cleaning zone thereof comprises a bar with a curved concave shape of at least one said mirror which is to be cleaned, said bar being rigid and fixed on the rigid structure and said rigid bar being covered with a rotating body which rotates around said rigid bar;
• and
• the rotating body comprises a rotating head fitted with a motor with a drive pulley, a transmission which includes one of a belt and a chain, and a driven pulley wheel which rotates around one end of the bar, an opposite end of the bar including a free pulley wheel, such that the rotating body being movable by said driven pulley wheel and resting at least on the free pulley wheel,
• wherein the lifting columns comprise a body rotating in respect of a vertical axis by means of which the lifting columns are adapted to move between a retracted position and an operating position.