General Coordination: Aránzazu Fernández-García, CIEMAT-PSA, Spain (arantxa.fernandez@psa.es)
Objective
Define and improve the measurement methods and protocols of optical properties of solar materials (including reflectors –clean and soiled-, receiver particles, etc.), both in laboratory conditions and in solar fields, and translate the results into official standardization bodies.
Partners
R&D Centers: CIEMAT, DLR, ENEA, FRAUNHOFER ISE, UNIV. ZARAGOZA, NREL, SANDIA, CENER, CEA, CNRS, UNIV. BARCELONA, IMDEA, ANU
Industries: RIOGLASS, TSK, ABENGOA, BRIGHTSOURCE, AGC, Alanod
Activity lines
1. Standard reflectance measurement under laboratory conditions
Coordinator: Aránzazu Fernández-García, CIEMAT-PSA, Spain (arantxa.fernandez@psa.es)
Current status:
- The last version of the Reflectance Guideline, titled PARAMETERS AND METHOD TO EVALUATE THE REFLECTANCE PROPERTIES OF REFLECTOR MATERIALS FOR CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER TECHNOLOGY. V3.1 was published in April 2020.
- The Reflectance Guideline is being transfered to an IEC standard. With this goal, a new IEC Project Team (IEC TC 117 / PT 62862-3-5) has been created in May 2021 with the title of “LABORATORY REFLECTANCE MEASUREMENT OF CONCENTRATING SOLAR THERMAL REFLECTORS”.
2. Advanced reflectance measurement under laboratory conditions
Coordinators: Cristina Pelayo, University of Zaragoza, Spain (cpelayo@unizar.es)
Florian Sutter, DLR, Germany (florian.sutter@dlr.de)
Current status:
- Several advanced instruments and configurable measurement setups are available in different R&D labs to fully characterize reflectance properties of solar mirrors with a wide range of parameters (wavelength, incidence angle and acceptance angle).
3. Reflectance measurement on soiled mirrors
Coordinator: Johannes Wette, CIEMAT, Spain (johannes.wette@psa.es)
Gregor Bern, Fraunhofer ISE, Germany (gregor.bern@ise.fraunhofer.de)
Current status:
- A deliverable titled PORTABLE REFLECTOMETERS TO MEASURE SOILED REFLECTORS IN SOLAR FIELDS, was published in June 2021 with practical information about the portable reflectometers available in the marked and their used in solar fields.
- The first version of the Soiling Guideline, titled RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFLECTANCE MEASUREMENTS ON SOILED SOLAR MIRROR, was published in July 2022.
4. Receiver particle measurement
Coordinator: Florian Sutter, DLR, Germany (florian.sutter@dlr.de)
Current status:
- SolarPACES project currently ongoing, titled “Characterization of optical properties of particles for CSP”.
- The Particles Guideline, titled METHOD TO EVALUATE THE REFLECTANCE, ABSORPTANCE AND EMITTANCE OF PARTICLES FOR CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER TECHNOLOGY, was published in May 2022.
5. Advanced optical modeling
Coordinator: Marco Montecchi, ENEA, Italy (marco.motecchi@enea.it)
Current status:
- The software Equivalent Model Algorithm for Solar Mirror (EMA4SM) developed by ENEA is freely available at https://github.com/mmonty1960/EMA4SM
- The software Soiling Mirror Modeling (SoilMirMod) developed by ENEA is freely available at https://github.com/mmonty1960/SoilMirMod
- The Particle Qualification Software developed by ENEA is freely available at https://github.com/mmonty1960/PQS
List of projects
The following table includes the list of projects funded by SolarPACES that have supported the activity of this working group during the last years.
|
Title |
Partners |
Duration |
Budget (€) |
|
Development of guidelines for standards for CSP components |
DLR, NREL, CIEMAT |
Jan 2010 – Dec 2011 |
72,000 |
|
Advance in the development of the reflectance guideline |
CIEMAT, DLR, ENEA, FRAUNHOFER ISE, CEA, CENER, CNRS |
Jan 2015- Dec 2016 |
30,000 |
|
Measuring and modelling near-specular solar reflectance at different incidence angles |
DLR, CIEMAT, ENEA, FRAUNHOFER ISE, UNIV. ZARAGOZA |
Jul 2017 – Dec 2018 |
104,756 |
|
Soiling measurement of solar reflectors |
CIEMAT, DLR, ENEA, FRAUNHOFER ISE, UNIV. ZARAGOZA, NREL, RIOGLASS, TSK, ABENGOA, BRIGHTSOURCE |
Oct 2019 – Mar 2022 |
123,000 |
|
Characterization of optical properties of particles for CSP |
DLR, CIEMAT, ENEA, UNIV. BARCELONA, NREL, SANDIA |
Oct 2021 – Sept 2022 |
59,952 |
|
Update of guideline “Recommendations for reflectance measurements on soiled solar mirrors” |
CIEMAT, DLR, ENEA, Fraunhofer ISE, Univ. Zaragosa, Carlos Heras, NREL, QUT, ANU, IMDEA Energy |
April 2023 – April 2025 |
75,500 |
Other projects that have addressed or are currently focusing on activities related to reflectance measurement are listed below:
- SFERA-III, WP10.
List of publications
Journal papers
Buendía-Martínez F, Fernández-García A, Sutter F, Martínez-Arcos L, Reche-Navarro TJ, García-Segura A, Valenzuela L. Uncertainty Study of Reflectance Measurements for Concentrating Solar Reflectors. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. 2020;69(9):7218-7232. DOI: 10.1109/TIM.2020.2975387.
Sutter F, Montecchi M, Von Dahlen H, Fernández-García A, Röger M. The effect of incidence angle on the reflectance of solar mirrors. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells. 2018;176:119-133. DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2017.11.029.
Fernández-García A, Sutter F, Martínez-Arcos L, Sansom C, Wolfertstetter F, Delord C. Equipment and methods for measuring reflectance of concentrating solar reflector materials. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells. 2017;167:28-52.
Sansom C, Fernández-García A, King P, Sutter F, Garcia Segura A. Reflectometer comparison for assessment of back-silvered glass solar mirrors. Sol Energy. 2017;155:496-505. DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2017.06.053.
Montecchi M. Approximated method for modelling hemispherical reflectance and evaluating near-specular reflectance of CSP mirrors. Solar Energy 2013;92:280-287. DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2013.03.014
Montecchi, M, Sutter, F, “Soiling Model for Spectral Reflectance of Solar Mirror”, Sol. Ene. 259 (2023) 356-363, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2023.05.017
Conference papers
Sutter F, Fernández-García A, Montecchi M. Indirect Method to Determine Near-Normal Sun-Conic Reflectance. 25th SolarPACES International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Daegu, South Korea. October 1-4, 2019. Oral. In: AIP Conference Proceedings 2303, 100007 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0028749
Wolfertstetter F, Hanrieder N, Bellmann P, Ghennioui A, Wette J, Fernández-García A. Parallel Soiling Measurements for 4 Mirror Samples during Outdoor Exposure with TraCS. 25th SolarPACES International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Daegu, South Korea. October 1-4, 2019. Oral. In: AIP Conference Proceedings 2303, 100009 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0028969
Montecchi M, Sutter F, Fernández-García A, Heimsath A, Torres F, Pelayo C. Enhanced Equivalent Model Algorithm for Solar Mirrors. 25th SolarPACES International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Daegu, South Korea. October 1-4, 2019. Oral. In: AIP Conference Proceedings 2303, 100005 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0028768
Wolfertstetter F, Wilbert S, Bellmann P, Gonzales Rodriguez S, Reche-Navarro TJ, Keller L, Fernández-García, A. T-TraCS – an Automated Method to Measure Soiling Losses at Parabolic Trough Receiver Tubes. 25th SolarPACES International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Daegu, South Korea. October 1-4, 2019. Oral. In: AIP Conference Proceedings 2303, 210006 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0029685.
Sutter F, Fernández-García A, Heimsath A, Montecchi M, Pelayo C. Advanced Measurement Techniques to Characterize the Near-Specular Reflectance of Solar Mirrors. 24th SolarPACES International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Casablanca, Morocco. October 2-5, 2018. Oral. In: AIP Conference Proceedings 2019:2126; 110003. DOI: 10.1063/1.5117618.
Wolfertstetter F, Wilbert S, Terhag F, Hanrieder N, Fernández-García A, Sansom C, et al. Modelling the soiling rate: dependencies on meteorological parameters. 24th SolarPACES International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Casablanca, Morocco. October 2-5, 2018. Oral. In: AIP Conference Proceedings 2019:2126;190018. DOI: 10.1063/1.5117715.
Heimsath A, Pino A, Wolferstetter F, Fernández-García A, Nitz P. Towards Comparative Soiling Measurements for Tracked Collectors. 23th SolarPACES International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Santiago de Chile, Chile. September 26-29, 2017. Poster.
Fernández-García A, Sutter F, Heimsath A, Montecchi M, Sallaberry F, Peña-Lapuente A, et al. Simplified Analysis of Solar-Weighted Specular Reflectance for Mirrors with High Specularity. 21st SolarPACES, International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Cape Town, South Africa. October 13-16, 2015. Oral. In: AIP Conference Proceedings 2016;1734:130006. DOI: 10.1063/1.4949216.
Montecchi M, Delord C, Raccurt O, Disdier A, Sallaberry F, García de Jalón A, Fernández-García A, et al. Hemispherical Reflectance Results of the SolarPACES Reflectance Round Robin. 20th SolarPACES, International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Beijing, China. September 16-19, 2014. Oral. In: Energy Procedia 2015;69:1904-1910. DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.03.174.
Fernández-García A, Cantos-Soto ME, Meyen S, Martínez-Arcos L. Measurement method to obtain accurate solar-weighted specular reflectance of solar reflectors. 18th SolarPACES, International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems. Marrakech, Morocco. September 11-14, 2012. Oral.
Meyen S, Fernández-García A, Kennedy C, Lüpfert E. Standardization of solar mirror reflectance measurements – Round Robin Test. 16th SolarPACES, International Conference on electricity, fuels and clean water powered by the Sun. Perpignan, France. September 21-24, 2010. Poster.
Montecchi M. Upgrading of ENEA Solar Mirror Qualification Set-up. Energy Procedia 2014;49:2154-2161. DOI:10.1016/j.egypro.2014.03.228.
Montecchi M. Proposal of a New Parameter for the Comprehensive Qualification of Solar Mirrors for CSP Applications. AIP Conference Proceedings 2016;1734:130014. DOI: 10.1063/1.4949224.