Accelerated aging test modeling applied to solar mirrors

Abstract

The durability of solar mirrors is a critical factor for the deployment of concentrating solar power plants. Accelerated aging test models currently applied in the polymer, electronic, and photovoltaic fields have recently been reviewed, and the issues of their application to solar mirrors have been discussed. This article first reports the results of temperature, humidity, and light irradiance accelerated aging tests performed to assess the dependent parameters of selected models from the literature. These parameters include the apparent activation energy for the Arrhenius temperature law, the Peck and Eyring coefficients for humidity models and the Schwarzschild coefficient for the irradiance law. The experimental values were then assessed for specular reflectance loss of solar mirrors. Finally, using these parameters, acceleration factors were calculated for solar mirrors. An effective temperature considering the Arrhenius degradation law was used rather than the commonly used mean temperature. This question is also addressed for light irradiance by using the dose instead of the mean value.

Perovskites on Ice: An Additive‐Free Approach to Increase the Shelf‐Life of Triple‐Cation Perovskite Precursor Solutions

“…Notably, devices fabricated from solutions stored at 4 °C had efficiencies consistent with the experimental controls. We have used this experiment to calculate an effective activation energy for the degradation process of 0.31 eV using the Arrhenius relationship [28] (shown in Figure S3). Although, this energy is an order of magnitude larger than room temperature, it is not inconsistent with that determined in other processes that occur over a period of days or weeks at room temperature [28,29] …”

Environmental effects of stratospheric ozone depletion, UV radiation, and interactions with climate change: UNEP Environmental Effects Assessment Panel, Update 2020

“…Estimating the service life of materials used outdoors under multiple environmental stressors, especially solar UV radiation and ambient temperature, is critical in developing strategies to improve their current service lifetimes despite changes in the UV radiation environment and global climate (SDG 9.4). This requires reliable laboratory-accelerated weathering procedures that estimate durability under specific exposure conditions as well as good lifetime models that yield good estimates of service lifetimes from weathering data [ 492 ]. However, acceleration of photo-damage in the laboratory has to ensure that wavelengths and intensities of radiation used, attain the same degradative mechanisms as solar exposure [ 489 , 493 ].…”

Perovskites on Ice: An Additive‐Free Approach to Increase the Shelf‐Life of Triple‐Cation Perovskite Precursor Solutions

“…Notably, devices fabricated from solutions stored at 4 °C had efficiencies consistent with the experimental controls. We have used this experiment to calculate an effective activation energy for the degradation process of 0.31 eV using the Arrhenius relationship [28] (shown in Figure S3). Although, this energy is an order of magnitude larger than room temperature, it is not inconsistent with that determined in other processes that occur over a period of days or weeks at room temperature.…”

“…Although, this energy is an order of magnitude larger than room temperature, it is not inconsistent with that determined in other processes that occur over a period of days or weeks at room temperature. [28,29] These measurements indicate that storage of the precursor solution at lower temperature increases their useful lifetime. We therefore performed an extended study in which we compared devices fabricated from TC-mixed and TC-DMSO precursor solutions that were either stored in a glovebox at room temperature ( � 22 °C) or refrigerated (at � 4 °C).…”