Progress in the Development of Advanced Solar Reflectors

Solar thermal technologies require large mirrors to provide concentrated sunlight for renewable power generation. Such materials must be inexpensive and maintain high specular reflectance for extended lifetimes in severe outdoor environments. Polymer reflectors are lighter than glass mirrors, offer greater system design flexibility, and have the potential for lower cost. During the past year,collaborative cost-shared research and; development between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and industrial partners has identified candidate materials that perform better than the state-of-the-art commercial silvered polymer reflectors in terms of corrosion degradation and resistance to delamination failure. Additional cooperative efforts will produce new alternative materialswith reduced costs due to high speed production line capability. NREL welcomes continued and expanded interest and web coating industry involvement in developing advanced solar reflector materials.