Optical durability testing of candidate solar mirrors

Abstract

Durability testing of a variety of candidate solar reflector materials at outdoor test sites and in laboratory accelerated weathering chambers is the main activity within the Advanced Materials task of the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Program. Outdoor exposure testing (OET) at up to eight outdoor, worldwide exposure sites has been underway for several years. This includes collaboration under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems (SolarPACES) agreement. Outdoor sites are fully instrumented in terms of monitoring meteorological conditions and solar irradiance. Candidate materials are optically characterized prior to being subjected to exposure in real and simulated weathering environments. Optical durability is quantified by periodically re-measuring hemispherical and specular reflectance as a function of exposure time. By closely monitoring the site- and time-dependent environmental stress conditions experienced by the material samples, site-dependent loss of performance may be quantified. In addition, accelerated exposure testing (AET) of these materials in parallel under laboratory-controlled conditions may permit correlating the outdoor results with AET, and subsequently predicting service lifetimes. Test results to date for a large number of candidate solar reflector materials are presented in this report. Acronyms are defined. Based upon OET and AET results to date, conclusions can be drawn about the optical durability of the candidate reflector materials. The optical durability of thin glass, thick glass, and two metallized polymers can be characterized as excellent. The all-polymeric construction, several of the aluminized reflectors, and a metallized polymer can be characterized as having intermediate durability and require further improvement, testing and evaluation, or both.