The project started on January 1st, 2015. Shortly thereafter, on 22nd January 2015, the FRIENDS2 Kickoff meeting took place in Seville, Spain, with ERs and ESRs of all project partners. The R&D work of FRIENDS2 was performed in four technical work packages (WPs). In WP1 new optical coatings for central receiver solar plants were developed. WP2 dealt with the design and manufacture of innovative corrosion-resistant, protective coatings for heat storage materials. The coatings developed in work package 1 and 2 were comprehensively characterized by advanced experimental techniques, including in situ analysis, within WP3. Within this WP appropriate protocols for a standardized coating development and testing were implemented. The most promising coatings developed and characterized in these WPs were further investigated with respect to their thermal stability in WP4, started in project year 3. Based on stability tests under lab conditions, a decision was made, which coatings were most suitable for field-testing and scaling up. The field tests were carried out under environmental conditions in a solar furnace of the European test facility Plataforma Solar de Almeria. The most promising optical coatings, a multilayer solar-selective absorber and a solar selective transmitter coating, showed exceptional thermal stability up to 600 C and even up to 800 °C, respectively. Therefore, they are very promising candidates for application in future central receiver solar plants. For the protective coatings, a Ni3Al coating deposited by atmospheric plasma spray technique was successfully tested as being long-term stable under hot corrosion conditions relevant for thermal storage units of solar power plants. In conclusion, three new coating types were developed, characterized and approved as suitable material solutions for the next generation solar power plants.