Towards Standard Testing Materials for High Temperature Solar Receivers

Solar thermal technology for the production on electricity is one of the current technological challenges. In concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, in order to achieve high power it is required to use a high operating temperature to reach high conversion efficiencies. The majority of today's commercial solar thermal power plants are based on the parabolic trough collector technology with operating temperature around 400 °C. However, the technology of solar tower is used in order to maximize the efficiency of the CSP plants. This technology reaches an operating temperature higher than 1000 °C and the development of high temperature receivers that work in this temperature ranges is still in its early stages. The fundamental problems observed are related to materials durability and reliability.The main objective of this paper has been to develop testing methods for solar receivers which guarantee their reliability and durability under demanding working conditions of high solar concentrating technology. Based on a revision of published or draft Standards, a qualification test methodology for durability tests has been developed.