Accelerated aging tests of solar reflectors according to new AENOR standard – Results of a Round Robin Test

Abstract

Durability tests of reflector materials for concentrating solar applications are crucial to guarantee the profitability of the plants and to ensure a proper efficiency during their lifetime. A standard including a set of five accelerated aging tests is close to be published by the Spanish standardization entity AENOR, within the sub-committee AEN/CTN 206/SC117. Under the framework of the STAGE-STE project, a Round Robin Test was organized by six partners to evaluate the comparability of results obtained in their respective laboratories after performing these durability tests. According to the results, in general a good agreement among the partners was found, with negligible to slight reflectance losses. In addition, it was noticed that the reference standard used in the reflectance measurements is of high importance. The conclusions of this work will help to improve the standard in future versions.