The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is preparing to unveil a database containing the results of exposure experiments on solar reflectors conducted over more than four decades. The publicly available Solar Mirror Materials Database (SMMD) will contain information from thousands of solar mirror samples from more than a hundred suppliers that have been subjected to outdoor tests and laboratory environments.
Typically used for concentrating solar-thermal power, these mirrors were installed and tested in Phoenix, Miami, and at NREL’s campus in Golden, Colorado. Information contained in the SMMD dates to 1980 and provides insight into how the different materials used in the mirrors degrade over time.
