Review of Mid- to High-Temperature Solar Selective Absorber Materials

Technical Report · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/15000706· OSTI ID:15000706

Kennedy, C E

This report describes the concentrating solar power (CSP) systems using solar absorbers to convert concentrated sunlight to thermal electric power. It is possible to achieve solar absorber surfaces for efficient photothermal conversion having high solar absorptance (a) for solar radiation and a low thermal emittance (e) at the operational temperature. A low reflectance (?'' 0) at wavelengths (?) 3 mm and a high reflectance (?'' 1) at l 3 mm characterize spectrally selective surfaces. The operational temperature ranges of these materials for solar applications can be categorized as low temperature (T< 100 C), mid-temperature (100 C< T< 400 C), and high-temperature (T> 400 C). High- and mid-temperature applications are needed for CSP applications. For CSP applications, the ideal spectrally selective surface would be low-cost and easy to manufacture, chemically and thermally stable in air at elevated operating temperatures (T= 500 C), and have a solar absorptance= 0.98 and a thermal emittance= 0.05 at 500 C.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-99-GO10337
• OSTI ID: 15000706
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP-520-31267; TRN: US200401%%167
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 1 Jul 2002
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
AIR
ELECTRIC POWER
SOLAR ABSORBERS
SOLAR RADIATION
SPECTRALLY SELECTIVE SURFACES
WAVELENGTHS
PV
CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER (CSP)
SOLAR ABSORBER SURFACES
SPECTRAL EMITTANCE
INTRINSIC ABSORBERS
SEMICONDUCTOR-METAL TANDEMS
SOLAR-SELECTIVE COATING
CERMET LAYER
NANOPARTICLES
PHOTOTHERMAL CONVERSION
SOLAR ENERGY - PHOTOVOLTAICS