Prof. Dr. Tuba Okutucu Özyurt visited Plataforma Solar de Almeria concentrated solar energy laboratories in Spain on 25-27 July 2022 as part of the Horizon 2020 SolarTwins project. She participated in characterization and accelerated aging experiments of Heliostat mirrors.

Copper is an important component in the manufacture of silver-glass reflectors used in concentrated solar power (CSP) and heat (CST) systems. However, due to the additional cost of copper and the environmental burden of copper mining, reflective coatings made without copper are being investigated. In the collaboration project involving researchers from Istanbul Technical University, Middle East Technical University, Şişecam A.Ş., CIEMAT-PSA and DLR-PSA Spain, reflectors produced by Şişecam A.Ş.  were subjected to natural aging in the external environment and accelerated aging tests in laboratory environment. Copper and non-copper samples were subjected to accelerated acetic acid salt spray, UV-Humidity, and UV tests to monitor the change in reflectance values in graph. It was observed that the absence of the copper layer did not cause a serious decrease in the reflective optical performance. Study results Presented as an oral and full-text paper at the international Solar Paces 2022 conference held in the USA by Prof.Dr. Ozyurt.