Polymeric Materials for Solar Thermal Applications

THE ISSUE One of the greatest challenges of the 21st century is to secure sustainable and save energy supply and to considerably reduce CO2 emissions and the potential serious consequences of climate change. The challenging goals with regard to the contributions of renewable energies cannot be obtained without a considerable growth of the solar thermal markets worldwide. Therefore, reliable, efficient and cost-competitive system components are required in large quantities. Today solar thermal collectors mainly consist of glass and metals whereas especially market prices for metals are subject to big fluctuations.