The assumed solar field area in both cases was about 1. In concentrating solar power technology, the optical efficiency of solar collector influences collector performance significantly. Linear fresnel and power tower technologies are presently being planned as commercial plants, but none have yet been built in the u. Because of its singleaxis tracking, all the solar radiations fall parallel to its. The tracking system is dual axis tracking system with slew drivers. Practical field alignment of parabolic trough solar. Unesco eolss sample chapters solar energy conversion and photoenergy systems vol. Study of organic trust pdf a simple parabolic trough solar collector tested under the local.
It is widely used as a reflecting solar concentrator. I medium temperature solar concentrators parabolic troughs collectors e. It points out the types of situations where parabolictrough solar water heating is most likely to be cost effective and describes the espc process available to federal facilities for parabolictrough projects. A vast area will be economically unreasonable whereas a small area will mainly cause. The collector concept was originated by winston in 1978. Apr 12, 2010 designing a parabolic trough solar concentrator requires specifying. Department of energy laboratory operated by midwest research institute battelle bechtel contract no. Most electric power plants use some form of fossil fuel as the thermal heat source to boil water into steam. These projects have been done by research centers, universities and companies to design and to analyze the reliability and the performance of solar concentrator. Assessment of parabolic trough and power tower solar. Phoenix is among the areas in the us that gets the most insolation incident sunlight each year.
It is sized so that the length of the parabolic curve is the same as the width of the available mirror material. Parabolic trough power plants ptpp are thus far mostly developed csp thermal plants that are operating commercially. Advanced lowcost receiver for parabolic trough solar power. Patterned after the best of previous, time proven designs, the skytrough is a breakthrough in cost and constructability resulting from significant design and material innovations. In this thesis, a mathematical model is applied to study the performance of a parabolic trough solar collector ptsc. This is partly due to the latitude and party due to the dry climate and therefore low humidity and low rainfall. This solar technology is applied in many applications and so its investigation is common. Parabolic trough concentrator courtesy acurex corporation.
Design of a 25 mwe solar thermal power plant in iran with. This paper presents the design, construction and investigates an experimental study of a parabolic trough solar collector. The collectors reflect the incident solar radiation onto its focal line toward a receiver that absorbs the concentrated solar energy to raise the temperature of the fluid inside it as shown in fig. A vast area will be economically unreasonable whereas a small area will mainly. If the said parabola is extended along an axis becoming a trough the solar rays are concentrated along a line through the focal point of the trough. Certainly, the right size of the solar field is the first selection with regard to nominal electrical power. Heliostats are tracking mirrors that reflect solar energy onto a fixed target. The parabolic trough collector is one of the most developed solar concentrating technologies for medium and high temperatures up to 800 k.
Mechanical design of a low cost parabolic solar dish concentrator. In a parabola all of the incoming rays from a light source in this case the sun are reflected back to the focal point of the parabola. Among the solar concentrators, parabolic dishes have the highest efficiency in the conversion of solar energy to electricity with an efficiency of 29. Lowcost concentrating solar collector for steam generation. Energy equations for computation of parabolictrough. Solar concentrators provide increased energy efficiency and produce electricity, heat and steam in the same system. A parabolic trough solar collector uses a mirror or aluminum foil sheet in the.
Csp systems use the sun as the thermal heat source as opposed to the photon energy of the sun as pv systems do. The receiver tube or heat collector element hce is the main component of. Solar tracking for a parabolic dish used in a solar thermal. In addition, sidebars provide indicators that a system.
Since the sun is very far away, the radiation rays that reach a concentrator is parallel to its axis. Solar concentrators rensselaer polytechnic institute. It points out the types of situations where parabolic trough solar water heating is most likely to be cost effective and describes the espc process available to federal facilities for parabolic trough projects. The trough has a parabolic crosssection consisting of that portion of the parabolic curve between its intersections with the latus rectum. Parabolic trough collector cost update for the system. Parabolic trough collector ptc the basic element of ptc are i the absorber tube located at the focal axis through which the liquid to be heated flows, ii the concentric transparent cover, and iii the parabolic concentrator. Abstracteven though most variations of solar concentrators have palmistry guide in urdu pdf been studied or.
The concentration ratio up to 10 can be achieved in the nontracking mode easily. Usually used in collaboration with a heat exchange unit, a device that moves heat from the focused light to moving fluid inside the heat exchange, a parabolic solar concentrator can be made easily in your own backyard. The parabolic trough collectors ptc consist of solar collectors mirrors, heat receivers and support structures. The designers and engineers behind the solarbeam tm foresaw the need to engineer an affordable system capable of. The research team performed a bottomup build and cost estimate for two stateoftheart parabolic trough designsthe skytrough and the ultimate trough. Parabolic trough collector cost update for the system advisor. Parabolic trough power plants are the only type of solar thermal power plant. Modeling and experimental investigation of parabolic trough solar. Pdf design and construction of a parabolic trough solar. Parabolic trough solar technology is the most proven and lowest cost largescale solar. The fundamental characteristics of the performance of a parabolic trough solar collector are its concentration ratio and its optical efficiency. When this is done, the cofocal point then becomes a cofocal line. Pdf an overview on parabolic trough solar collector.
Mechanical design of a low cost parabolic solar dish. The solar thermal power plants stpps that are addressed in this study consist of two major components. Assessment of parabolic trough and power tower solar technology cost and performance forecasts national renewable energy laboratory 1617 cole boulevard golden, colorado 8040393 nrel is a u. Dni, wind speed, ambient drybulb temperatureshould be the actual weather file with the time. The performance of a parabolic trough concentrator for solar industrial process heat 1429 fig. Concentrating solar collectors use shaped mirrors or lens to provide higher temperatures that flat plate collectors. Parabolic troughs, which are a type of linear concentrator, are the most mature csp technology with over 500 megawatts mw operating worldwide. Three parabolic trough solar concentrators ptscs of dimensions.
The parabolic curve would focus all the rays to a focal point, and a trough normally extends the shape in three dimensions to tum the focal point into a focal line. The economic and social signification of the method may be huge. John ericsson constructed in 1880 the first known parabolic trough collector. Energy equations for the computation of parabolictrough collector efficiency using. Pdf solar collector in the shape of a parabolic mirror reflects the incident solar energy on the longitudinal axis of the solar collector. Wilcox, solar radiation data manual for flatplate and. It focuses the solar energy on a line, through which water flows. The design, modelling, fabrication, and testing of a pilotscale solar trough concentrator system, based on a stack of reflective polymeric films mounted on a rigid concrete support and combined with a crossflow solar receiver using air as heat transfer fluid, was described as an alternative to conventional solar parabolic trough collectors. Pdf parabolic trough solar collector design, construction and. Analytical expression of parabolic trough solar collector. Parabolic troughs are the most commercially available technology. A distinct property that it has is that it can focus all the parallel rays from the sun to a single focus point, f as shown in figure 2.
The parabolic trough collector ptc is the most common type of hightemperature solar thermal technology, in which the heat transfer fluid is usually synthetic oil, molten salt or watersteam. The sunlight which enters the mirror parallel to its plane of symmetry is focused along the focal line, where objects are positioned that are intended to be heated. The skytrough is a high performance parabolic trough concentrating solar collector for use in. An economic parabolic dish concentrating system was built at the sustainable energy science and engineering center sesec at florida state university in tallahassee, florida. Parabolic trough technology is currently the most proven solar thermal electric. This paper is based upon an experimental study of two different parabolic trough collectors which have been designed, fabricated and evaluated to derive a comparison between their performances, in producing hot water, by using a black coated receiver. There is a distinguish reason on the selection ofa parabolic concentrator. Zarza encyclopedia of life support systems eolss the concentration ratio of a ptc is the ratio between the collector aperture area and the total area of the absorber tube. In different areas concerning the amount of solar radiation, their standard size is approximately between 20 and 100 mwe.
The parabolic dish concentrator is used to reflect and concentrate the suns rays onto the receiver aperture so that the solar heat can be absorbed by the receiver. They consist of a solar field filled with hundreds or thousands of solar collector assemblies sca. Four main concentrating solar power technologies are described in this report. Practical field alignment of parabolic trough solar concentrators in this paper a new technique for parabolic trough mirror alignment based on the use of an innovative theoretical overlay photographic top approach is described. This page concentrates on providing links, information and plans for build it. Our contribution to sustainable development for humanity and the environment is a swedish solar energy system with unique versatility and installations the world over. This page describes the design, construction, and operation of a troughtype parabolic solar concentrator. Parabolic trough solar concentrating systems are parabolic shaped collectors made of reflecting materials. Concentrating solar power commercial application study. Nov 25, 2010 a parabolic trough collector it is a principle of geometry that a parabolic reflector pointed at the sun will reflect parallel rays of light to the focal point of the parabola. Abstract this paper presents the design of a parabolictrough solarcollector system for water desalination in gaza, collectoraperture and rimangle optimization together with the receiverdiameter selection are presented. This parabolic trough 73% efficient solar power world. Later in 1878 a parabolic collector was showcased and reected the sunos energy onto a steam boiler which operated a small engine that ran a printing press. The initial installation cost of these parabolic trough solar collectors consti tutes the.
Modeling of a parabolic solarcollector system for water desalination. Numerical modelling of a parabolic trough solar collector. Parabolic dish solar concentrators have shown high conversion efficiencies and operating temperatures around 750 o c at annual efficiency of 23%29% peak. Each sca is an independently tracking parabolic trough solar collector consisting of four major subsystems. The parabolic curve would focus all the rays to a focal point, and a trough normally extends the shape in. I tried to show what a determined person can do with ordinary tools and materials, a good hardware store and a bit of perseverance a high performance do it.
Parabolic trough power plants use parabolic trough collectors to concentrate the. A parabolic trough is a type of solar thermal collector that is straight in one dimension and curved as a parabola in the other two, lined with a polished metal mirror. Sep 03, 2010 utility scale parabolic trough solar concentrators harness the suns energy to make steam for electricity generation. Nowadays, parabolic trough solar thermal plants are prevalent around the world. The parabolic dish solar concentrator system mainly consists of base support, concave dish frame, reflecting sheets, conversion unit and suntracking system as shown in fig. Design of a parabolic trough solar collector using a. A wide variety of parabolic trough solar collector options are available to you, such as type, application, and pipe material. Solartron is the designer and manufacturer behind the revolutionary solarbeam tm parabolic dish. The solar thermal element can be a parabolic trough field, a linear fresnel reflector field, a central receiver system or a field of parabolic dishes, commonly designed for a normal incident radiation of 800900 wm2 1. Recently, the development of sophisticated csp increased but mainly for large scale utility production with the use of parabolic troughs and parabolic sterling engine systems. It also describes the sun tracking system unit by manual tilting of the lever at the. This is primarily due t o nine large commercialscale solar power plants, the first of which has been operating in the california mojave. Collector is designed with simple parabolic equations. Pdf design and manufacturing of parabolic trough solar.
This page concentrates on providing links, information and plans for build it yourself concentrating collectors and heliostats. Federal technology parabolictrough solar alert water heating. Pdf in this paper are presented the results of designing a parabolic trough solar collector ptsc, and its application in a solar thermal system for. Parabolic trough collectors are used to concentrate the direct solar radiation onto receiver. The objective of this study is to develop analytical expressions for the determination of the thermal performance of parabolic trough collectors. A parabolic trough is a one dimensional parabola that focuses solar energy onto a line. Concentrated solar power csp systems use very different technology than photovoltaic systems. Parabolictrough concentrator the accuracy of the solar tracking depends to a great extent on the solar coordinates at a particular. Not only the production cost drops to far blow the other manufacturing methods of parabolic troughs, but also it makes the solar energy collecting cost substantially lower than any fossil fuel. Parabolic dish solar concentrators have shown high conversion efficiencies and high operating temperatures, of the order of 750 o c, at annual efficiency of 23% and 29% peak 30, 31. Medium temperature solar concentrators parabolictroughs. Improvements in efficiency of solar parabolic trough. Analysis and design consideration of solar steam generation.