CIEMAT — Plataforma Solar de Almería

Snapshot

Why it matters internationally

The Plataforma Solar de Almería is Europe’s flagship concentrating solar facility, and its OPAC laboratory anchors the radiative-property side of that mission: absorptance and emittance of receiver coatings and reflectors, plus aging. As one of the participating laboratories in the DLR-led SFERA-III intercomparison of solar absorptance and thermal emittance measurements (Caron et al., 2022), PSA contributes to the applied-solar community’s effort to harmonize these measurements, an effort analogous to the role CCT comparisons play in metrology.

Scope of activity

• Quantities: solar absorptance · thermal emittance · specular and hemispherical reflectance
• Spectral range: 0.28–2.5 µm (solar absorptance); 2–14 µm (thermal emittance, FTIR + integrating sphere)
• Temperature: room temperature (spectrophotometric); aging under concentrated solar conditions
• Methodology: Solar absorptance (Lambda 1050 with 150 mm integrating spheres) and thermal emittance (FTIR with integrating sphere) of receiver coatings and solar reflectors; participated in the DLR-led SFERA-III laboratory intercomparison of solar absorptance and thermal emittance measurements (Caron et al., Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, 2022).
• Named facilities: OPAC optical characterization laboratory

Application domains: concentrating solar thermal receivers and reflectors · coating durability and aging.

External sources

• OPAC laboratory (PSA)
• SFERA-III intercomparison of solar absorptance and thermal emittance