ME1005 – Utilization of Solar Energy

By
Subbarama Kousik Suraparaju
Research Scholar

Solar Energy Laboratory

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY-PUDUCHERRY
KARAIKAL - 609609
 SYLLABUS
1. History of solar energy utilization - Solar radiation and modeling - Empirical equations for predicting the
availability of solar radiation – Measurement of global, direct and diffuse radiation – Radiation
computations on inclined surfaces – Angstrom’s turbidity - Solar chart – Standard radiation scale.

2. Measurement of solar radiation - Solar energy measuring instruments – Pyranometer – Pyrheliometer –

Sunshine recorder - Estimation of average solar radiation - Ratio of beam and total radiation on tilted
surface of that on horizontal surface.

3. Flat plate collector - Materials for flat plate collector and their properties - Thermal Analysis of Flat- plate
Collector and Useful Heat Gained by the fluid - fin efficiency - collector efficiency factor - Heat Removal
Factor - Focusing collectors - Types and applications of focusing collectors

4. Introduction and principle of operation of solar cooker - solar air heater - solar water heater - solar
distillation - solar pond - solar thermal power generation – Greenhouse - Solar PV system

5. Types of Energy Storage - Thermal Storage - Electrical Storage - Chemical Storage - hydro storage

11/27/2020 SUBBARAMA KOUSIK - NIT PUDUCHERRY 2

 Unit - 1

Flat plate collector - Materials for flat plate collector

and their properties - Thermal Analysis of Flat- plate
Collector and Useful Heat Gained by the fluid - fin
efficiency - collector efficiency factor - Heat Removal
Factor - Focusing collectors - Types and applications
of focusing collectors

11/27/2020 SUBBARAMA KOUSIK - NIT PUDUCHERRY 3

 FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS
• The flat plate collector forms the heart of any solar energy collection system
and can be employed to heat fluid (liquid or air) from ambient to near 100C.
• The term ‘flat plate’ is slightly misleading since the absorbing surface may
not necessarily be flat but may be grooved and other shapes.
• Flat plate collectors are under investigation for the last 300 years. The first
reported flat plate collector was demonstrated by Mr. H.B. Saussure, a Swiss
scientist during the second half of the seventeenth century.
• During the last six decades scientists in several countries mainly in USA, UK,
Australia, Israel, Germany, South Africa, China and India have built, tested,
studied and optimized different types of flat plate collectors mainly liquid
heating flat plate collector.
 FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS
Pioneering work on solar flat-plate collectors have been done by Hottel,
Whillier and Bliss in USA who mathematically modelled the collector and gave
Hottel-Whillier-Bliss equations to understand the collectors.
LaterProf. H.Tabor in Israel has done significant work on understanding the
behaviour of collectors and gave several original ideas like convection-
suppression, selective black coatings and evacuated collectors.
Significant work on flat-plate collectors was done by Prof. H.P.Garg in India
and gave methodology for optimizing the collector configuration, designing
the collector, thermal rating procedure of collectors, thermal loss optimization,
collector tilt optimization and dirt correction factor, etc.
 FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS
• Flat plate collectors are of two type: liquid heating type and air heating type,
• The most obvious difference between the two is the mode of heat transfer
between the absorber plate and the heated fluid,
• In the best type of liquid – plate collector, which generally makes use of a fin-
tube construction, heat absorbed is transferred to the tubes by conduction,
• In a conventional flat-plate air heater there is a duct (passage) between the
absorbing plate and rear plate. Thus the difference being in the heat transfer
exchanger design.
• Other components like glazing, insulation, casing, orientation, tilt, exposure, etc.
remain the same.
Schematic cross-section of a typical flat plate solar
collector illustrating the major functional parts
Materials and its properties
 Flat Plate Collectors
• The main purpose of the collector is to absorb the sun’s energy and transfer
this energy efficiently to the liquid flowing in it. There is a great variety of flat
plate collectors, but a tube in plate type of collector, is widely used. The
collector can be all metallic or plastic, single glazed or double glazed,
selectively coated or ordinary black painted depending on the temperature of
operation and outside climatic conditions.
• As is seen earlier, a flat plate collector has the following components:
• A blackened or selectively coated flat – absorbing plate, normally metallic,
which absorbs the incident solar radiation, convert it into heat and conducts
the heat to the fluid passages.
• Tubes, channels or passages attached to the collector absorber plate to
circulate the fluid required to remove the thermal energy from the plate.
COMPONENTS OF FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR
(contd.)
• Insulation material provided at the back and sides of the absorber plate whose
principal function is to reduce heat loss from the back and sides of the absorber
plate.
• A transparent or translucent cover or covers whose principal functions are to
reduce the upward heat losses and to provide weather proofing.
• An enclosing box whose principal functions are to hold the other components of
the collector and to protect the collector plate and insulation material from the
weather.

Collectors generally available in the market, although confirming to the above

general design, have some differences between them. The components most
often changed are the absorber plate configuration, the black coating on the
absorber plate, and the glazing.
Improving Efficiency of a Flat-Plat Collector
The efficiency can be improved by:

• Improving transmittance - absortance product,

• Reducing thermal losses (conduction, convection and radiation),
• Improving heat transfer coefficient from absorbing plate to the
working fluid,
• Optimizing collector configuration for better heat exchanger
efficiency,
• Optimizing tilt, orientation and exposure of collector
 Transparent Cover Plate
The function of cover plates are:

• Transmit maximum solar radiation,

• Minimize upward heat loss from absorber plate to the environment,
• Protecting the absorber plate from weather.

The most critical factors for the cover plate materials are:

• Strength
• Durability
• Non-degradability
• Cost
• Solar-energy and thermal energy transmittance

Tempered glass is the most common cover material for collectors because of its proven
durability and stability against UV radiation. Tempered glass cover, if properly mounted, is highly
resistant to breakage both from thermal cycling and natural events.
 Antireflective coatings
• All transparent materials (like glass) reflect some light from their surfaces.
By using a thin film having a refractive index between that of air and
transparent medium, the reflectance of the interfaces can be changed.
For normal incidence, the fraction of light reflected is given by:

2
 n2  n1 
R   
 n2  n1 

Where n2 and n1 are the refractive indices of the transparent sheet and
the medium respectively. Coating the surface with a non-absorbing film
will reduce the reflectance.
Insulation materials for Flat-Plate
Collectors
• Several thermal insulating materials which can be used to reduce heat losses from
the absorbing plate and pipes are commonly available.

• The desired characteristics of an insulating material are:

• Low thermal conductivity,

• Stability at high temperature (upto 200C),
• No degassing upto around 200C,
• Self-supporting feature without tendency to settle,
• Ease of application,
• No contribution in corrosion, and
• Low cost.

• Some of the good insulating materials are: glass wool, fibre glass, rock wool,
polyurethane, cork etc.
 SELECTIVE BLACK COATINGS

• For efficient collection of solar radiation, the absorber surface should absorb
more solar radiation and emit less thermal radiation.
• This selective behavior is possible since solar radiation is in the wavelength
range of 0.2 – 2.5 m while thermal radiations emitted from a surface at
temperature more than 100C is above 5.0 m.
• An ideal selective coating would be one with absorptance ()  1 in the range
of 0.2 – 2.5 m and emittance ()0 in the operating temperature range (above
100C or 3.0 – 7.0 m wavelength range).
• Practical selective black coating will have / as high as possible.
 SELECTIVE BLACK COATINGS (contd.
)

• There are four principal types of selective surface (opague).

• The first is one which absorb and emit as much radiation as possible at all
wavelengths and is known as black body.
• The second surface will absorb more solar radiation and emit less
radiation. The example is nickel black on a polished substrate.
• The third surface will absorb less solar radiation and emit more radiation.
The example is white paint on a metal sheet.
• The fourth surface will absorb less solar radiation and emit less radiation.
The example is aluminium foil.
Reflectance of selective coatings
ENERGY BALANCE ON A FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR
The useful energy derived from a flat plate collector is the difference between the
energy absorbed and the energy lost from the collector. For a flat plate collector of
area Ac the energy balance equation is written as :

d ic
I Tt ( T  ) e  q u  q1   qa (1)
Where d

(T)e = effective transmittance-absorptance product of the absorber given as



1  (1   )  d

The flat plate collectors are always oriented and tilted (fixed) so that they receive maximum solar
radiation during the desired season of use. But the solar radiation is generally measured on the
horizontal surfaces so these values require conversion to use on tilted surfaces.
In unit time, an unit area of the absorber will absorb energy qa given by

qa  [ I Th  I dh ) R D  D  D  I dh R d  d  d  I Th R R R  R  R ] DS (2)
 ENERGY BALANCE ON A FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR
(Cont.)
• Under steady state conditions, the heat balance of the absorber is given by the simple
equation:

(useful heat collected) = (heat absorbed by the plate) - (heat losses)

qu = ITt()e - UL(Tp - Ta) (3)

• Usually the plate temperature Tp given in equation (3) is not known and is difficult to
calculate or measure since it is a function of several parameters discussed earlier.
• More useful for design is a relation in which Tp is replaced by the inlet fluid
temperature Ti and the whole right hand side is multiplied by a term FR, the heat
removal efficiency factor, which depends on collector design details and fluid flow
rate.
qu = FR[ITt()e - UL (Ti - Ta)] (4)

• The three design factors, FR, ()e and UL are measures of thermal performance and
combine to yield overall collector efficiency in terms of the operating variables of
 ENERGY BALANCE ON A FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR (Cont.)
The instantaneous efficiency of a collector, c is simply the ratio of the useful energy
derived to the total solar energy falling on the collector, or
qu
 c

Ac I Tt (5)
Usually, the efficiency is computed over a finite time period, , and therefore the
expression for average efficiency is as follows:

 qu d 
  
o


c

 o
Ac I Tt d (6)

where  is the time period over which the performance is averaged.

Thus instantaneous efficiency using equation 4 & 5 of the flat plate collector is given
as:
(T  Ta )
 F R ( ) e  F RU L
i

I T
(7)
 ENERGY BALANCE ON A FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR (Cont.)
Indicating that if  is plotted against (Ti – Ta)/IT a straight line will result, with a slope of
FRUL and y- intercept of FR()e. This is the way actual performance data for solar
collectors are presented. The collector heat removal factor may be calculated from the
following equation :
C
m   U L Ac F p  
FR 
p
1  exp    (8)
U Ac   m C p  
L   
actual useful energy collected
Fp 
useful energy collected if the entire
absorber surface is at the local fluid temperatu re

Where, Fp= collector plate efficiency factor.

The Eq. (3) can now be written as:
qu
 F p [ I T ( ) e  U L
(T m Ta ) (9)
Ac

Where, Tm is the average fluid temperature

 ENERGY BALANCE ON A FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR (Cont.)
The plate efficiency factor (Fp) for a tube in plate type of collector may be calculated from
the following equation:
I /U
F  L

 1 
p

w 
mt

1

1

(10)
 Dh fi
DK t
Cb U L
[D  (W  D )F

Where
w = centre-to-centre tube spacing
D = outside diameter of the tube
hfi= tube-to-fluid (film) heat transfer coefficient
Kt = thermal conductivity of tube
Cb = bond conductance ( = Kb b/t)
Kb = bond material thermal conductivity
b = bond width
t = bond thickness
mt = tube thickness
F = fin efficiency factor given as: tanh[ a ( w  D ) / 2]
F  (11)
a(w  D ) /2
ENERGY BALANCE ON A FLAT PLATE
COLLECTOR (Cont.)

where

wU heat transfer resistance from inner surface of tube to the

L
 fluid,
dhc
wU mt
L
 conduction of heat from outside wall to inside wall of
dK t tube,

wU L
 conduction of heat from the fin to the tube through the tube
Cb fin bond,

wU L
 conduction of heat along the fin towards the
U L
(b F '(w  b )) pipe,
 LOSS COEFFICIENT OF FLAT PLATE
COLLECTORS

The overall heat loss coefficient UL =Ql/(Tp-Ta) is made up of three components – top loss
coefficient Ut, the bottom loss coefficient Ub, and the edge loss coefficient Ue:
UL = Ut + Ub + Ue …………..(12)
The bottom loss coefficient, Ub, is simply the ratio of the thermal conductivity of the insulation (Ki)
beneath the absorber plate to the thickness li:
Ub = Ki / li Ac ………….. (13)
Likewise, the edge loss coefficient is the ratio of the thermal conductivity of the insulation at the
edge to the thickness, times the ratio of the area of edge Ae to the collector effective aperture
area Ac:
thermal conductivi ty of insulation at edge  Ae 
Ue    ……..(14)
thickness of insulation at the edge  Ac 
 LOSS COEFFICIENT OF FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS
(Cont.)

The modified equation as given by Garg for Ut is :

1
Ut 
 N  1
  
 ( 204 . 429  ( Tp  Ta ) /( N  hw 
3 0 . 252
/ Tp ) L cos f ) /L 
……(15)
 ( Tp  Ta
2 2
)( Tp  Ta )
 w /m
2 O
C
 1 2N  f 1 
  N
  p  0 . 0425 N (1   p ) g 

where f = (9/h - 30/h2) (Ta/316.9) (1+0.091 N)

where Tp = absorber plate temperature (k)

 LOSS COEFFICIENT OF FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS
(Cont.)
Ta = ambient temperature (k)

N = number of transparent cover plates

p = thermal emissivity of absorver plate surface

g= thermal emissivity of the cover plate (for glass, g= 0.88)

 = Collector slope (degrees)

 = Stefan – Boltzman constant = 5.67 10-8 W/m2 k4

hw = convective heat transfer coefficient due to wind (w/m2 C)

= 2.8 + 3.0 V

V = Wind speed (m/sec)

Longterm Average Performance of Flat-Plate Collectors
•Generally the performance of solar collectors is given by instantaneous efficiency on clear days.

•The true performance of solar collector will depend on cloudiness of atmosphere and varying angle
of incidence.

•Longterm performance can help in optimizing the design and evaluation of economics.

Two methods are generally employed for longterm performance:

i)Computer simulation method using longterm weather data

ii) Utilizability (Φ) method as given by Liu and Jordan using monthly average hourly radiation and
temperature data

•UsingHottel-Whillier-Bliss equations and longterm monthly average solar radiation and ambient
temperature data, utilizability curves were produced for various cloudiness indices or cities of USA.

•Using
the same analogy design curves of several Indian stations both for summer months and winter
months were produced by Garg for flat-plate liquid heating collectors.
 for winter use for summer use

Design curves for Flat Plate Collector

 Collector – Plate configuration
1. Integral construction
• Tube wall should be thick to withstand fluid pressure and prevent
corrosion.
• Here tube thickness is one half the plate thickness resulting in an
ultra thick weight and costs 50% more than tube and fin absorber.

2. Tube and Fin construction (Mechanical Jointing)

• Simple construction but shows poor bonding resulting in poor
heat transfer.
• Therefore the contact area should be large and joint should be
uniformly tight.

3. Tube and Fin construction (Adhesive or soldered bonding)

• This type of jointing is better than mechanical jointing but suffers from low
thermal conductivity.
• For better heat flow large contact area, and thin and continuous layer of bonding
material are necessary.
• The bonding material may deteriorate with aging and thermal cycling.

4. Tube and Fin construction (metallurgical bond)

• A good joint from mechanical strength point of view but shows low
thermal conductivity compared to solder bonding.
• High plate thickness required.

5. Tube and Fin construction (Forge welding )

• Tube and Fin of different materials can be used.
• High thermal conductivity.
 COLLECTOR CONFIGURATION
• The collector system considered here is of the pipe and fin type as shown below:

• Which is supposed to be the best choice for domestic as well as industrial water heating
requirements. The possible materials of the fin (Kp ) may be copper, aluminum, steel or
galvanized iron of thickness (mp ) 0.091 cm, 0.071 cm, 0.056 cm, 0.046 cm and 0.038
cm. Similarly the pipe may be of copper, aluminum, steel or galvanized iron of inner
diameter (d) as 1.27 cm, 1.91 cm and 2.54 cm, spaced (w) at 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0, 12.5,
15.0, 17.5, or 20.0 cm. The bond conductance is taken as 10, 20, 30, 40 (W/mC).
 COLLECTOR CONFIGURATION
• Thus from all above description we conclude that the tube spacing, its
diameter, its material; fin material and its thickness; heat transfer
coefficient; bond conductance; heat loss coefficient are all directly
related to the system performance.
• Therefore the aim of the designer should be the best cost effectiveness
which is a function of efficiency and cost. The main scope for reducing
the cost lies in selecting the optimum combination of pipe spacing and
fin thickness for a particular material of pipe and fin. Material cost will be
reduced by increasing the spacing between pipes and by making the plate
thinner.
• However this leads to a reduction in fin efficiency, plate efficiency factor
and overall system performance. Therefore the aim should be to
determine the combination of pipe spacing and plate thickness, which
will minimize the ratio of cost to useful energy collected by the system
 Optimization of collector configuration
• Optimization of collector configuration means the selection of best
combination of plate and pipe materials pipe to give maximum efficiency
at minimum cost.
• Several parameters and combinations of material that can be used for a
flat-plate collector as shown in the equation of plate efficiency factor
have been used along with the associated cost of each combination and
minimum value of C/Fp (cost/efficiency) for each geometry calculated.
• The optimized configuration for a minimum value of cost/efficiency is
for the following specifications of flat-plate collector:
Plate material : Aluminum
Thickness of plate : 28 SWG
Tube material : Galvanised Iron
Tube diameter : 19 mm
Tube to tube spacing : 10 cm
The photograph of an optimised collector plate
 Optimization of Collector Tilt and Orientation
• A flat-plate collector is always titled and oriented (fixed) in such a way that it receives
maximum solar radiation during the desired season of use.
• Since in northern hemisphere such as in India, sun appears to be moving from east to west
via south, the collector should face exactly towards the south. Deviation of 5-10 degrees from
south towards east or west will not effect the performance much. The exact south at a place
can be determined at solar time using plumb line.
• A detailed scientific analysis for finding out optimum tilt for flat plate collectors was
conducted by Prof. H.P.Garg considering, direct and diffuse solar radiation separately,
transmittance of glass cover with angle of incidence; place(L), date() and time of day()
and derived an expression of optimum tilt(opt).
• Based on this equation and curves developed for different Indian stations, following thumb
rules are derived for collector tilt:
• For Winter performance (November-February), the collector tilt can be latitude of the place
plus 15 degrees (L+150),
• For summer performance (March-October), the collector tilt can be latitude of the place
minus 15 degrees (L-150),
• For year round performance (January-December), the collector tilt can be 0.9 times the
latitude(0.9L0).
Thermal Analysis
 THERMAL TESTING OF SOLAR COLLECTORS

There are variety of solar collectors and each behave differently under
different climatic conditions, operating parameters and design variables.

Hence there was a need of unified approach for thermally rating the collectors
for finding out instantaneous efficiency, effect of angle of incidence of solar
radiation and determination of collector time constant (a measure of effective
heat capacity).

National Bureau of Standards (NBS) of USA in 1974 developed the first

procedure for testing and thermal rating of collectors (as proposed earlier by
Garg & Gupta) which was later modified by ASHRAE in 1977 and is known as
ASHRAE Standard 93-77. The ASHRAE 93-77 was adopted with some minor
changes in many countries of the world including India.
THERMAL TESTING OF SOLAR COLLECTORS
(contd.)

The collector performance equation as discussed earlier are:

Qu  m C p ( T o  T i ) (1)

Qu = Ac FR [ITt ()e – UL (Ti-Ta)] (2)

Qu F RU (Ti  Ta )
i   F R ( ) e  L
(3)
A c I Tt I
Tt

 C p (T o
m  Ti )
i  (4)
A c I Tt

These equations are the basis of the standard test procedures.

 THERMAL TESTING OF SOLAR COLLECTORS
(contd.)

The general test procedure is to operate the collector in the test facility under nearly
steady conditions, measure the data to determine Qu from Equation (1), and measure ITt,
Ti, and Ta which are needed for analysis based on Equation 3. Of necessity, this means
outdoor tests are done in the midday hours on clear days when the beam radiation is
high and usually with the beam radiation nearly normal to the collector. Thus the
transmittance – absorptance product for these test conditions is approximately the
normal incidence value and is written as ()n.
Tests are made with a range of inlet temperature conditions. To minimize effects of heat
capacity of collectors, tests are usually made in nearly symmetrical pairs, one before and
one after solar noon, with results of the pairs averaged. Instantaneous efficiencies are
determined from i=mCp(To)/AcITt for the averaged pairs, and are plotted as a function of
(Ti-Ta)/ITt). A sample plot of data taken at five test sites under conditions meeting
ASHRAE 93-97 specifications, is shown in figure.
 THERMAL TESTING OF SOLAR COLLECTORS
(contd.)

If UL, FR, and ()n were all constant, the plots of i versus (Ti-Ta)/ITt would be
straight lines with intercept FR ()n and slope – FR UL. However, they are not,
and the data scatter. We know that UL is a function of temperature and wind
speed, with decreasing dependence as the number of covers increases. Also,
FR is a weak function of temperature.

And some variations of the relative proportions of beam, diffuse, and ground-
reflected components of solar radiation will occur.
Thus scatter in the data are to be expected, because of temperature
dependence, wind effects, and angle of incidence variations. In spite of these
difficulties, long time performance estimates of many solar heating systems,
collectors can be characterized by the intercept and slope [i.e. by FR()n and FR
UL].
Performance curve of a solar collector
Focussing collectors
 DIRECT CONVERSION
1 Photovoltaic
2 Photoemissive
3 Photogalvanic
4 Photomagnetic

SOLAR THERMAL HEAT ELECTRIC ELEC.

ENERGY ENERGY ENGINE GENERATION ENERGY

THERMAL ENERGY
1. Thermoelectric
2. Thermionic
3. Ferroelectricity
4. Magnetohydrodynamics
5. Electrogasdynamics

Few schemes of converting solar energy into electricity

 Solar Concentrators
• Solar concentrators are optical devices which increase the flux on the
absorber surface as compared to the flux incident on the concentrator
aperture. Optical concentration is achieved by the use of reflecting or
refracting elements positioned to concentrate the incident flux onto a
desired absorber surface.

• A solar concentrator usually consists of (i) an optical device to focus solar

radiation (ii) a blackened metaliic absorber provided with a transparent
cover, and (iii) a tracking device for continuously following the sun.

• Temperatures as high as 3000C can be achieved with such devices and

they find applications in both photothermal and photovoltaic conversion of
solar energy.
 Solar Concentrators (contd.)
Classifications
• Solar concentrators may be broadly classified into three categories, namely,

(i) point focusing

(ii) line focusing, and
(iii) line focusing of limited extent

Point focusing concentrators have circular symmetry and are generally used
when high concentration is required. These systems requiring two axis tracking
can generate temperature in the range 800-3000C. Point focusing concentrators
are being used for solar thermal power generation purposes.

Line focus concentrators have cylindrical symmetry and are generally used when
intermediate concentration is required to meet the demand of a desired task.
Temperatures in the range of 100-350C can be generated using line focus
concentrators. These systems can be utilized for solar thermal power generation
as well as for industrial process heat applications.
Types and application of focusing
collectors
Schematic diagrams of different solar concentrators (a) Flat absorber with flat
reflectors,
(b) Parabolic cencentrator, (c) Compound parabolic concentrator, (d) Fresnel lens,
(e) Cylindrical parabolic concentrator
 Solar Concentrators (contd.)
THERMODYNAMIC LIMITS TO CONCENTRATION

The concentration has an upper limit that depends on whether the concentrator is a point focus
(three dimensional geometry) or line focus (two dimensional geometry) type. The maximum
possible concentration achievable with a concentrator that only accepts all the incident sunlight
within an acceptance half angle Qm is given by

1
C max 
(3D )
Sin
2
m
1
C max 
(2D )
Sin m
Where  m is the half of the angular substance of the sun at any point on the earth ( = 16' ).
The maximum achievable concentration for these two types of concentrators are about. 45,000 and
215 respectively.
In practice, however, these levels of concentration are not achievable because of tracking errors
and presence of surface imperfections in the surface of reflecting or refracting element.
 POINT FOCUSING CONCENTRATIONS
To achieve high efficiencies at high temperatures one needs concentrations
producing point focus. These concentrations require two axis tracking.
Concentrator designs which fall in this category are – a paraboloid of revolution,
central tower receiver system and circular freshnel lens etc.

Paraboloid of Revolution
The surface produced by rotating a parabola about its optical axis is called a
paraboloid. With perfect optical surfaces, a parallel beam of light produces a
point focus. However, a somewhat enlarged focal point or image is produced
due to finite angular substance of the sun.
The concentration ratio for a paraboloid can be determined easily from basic
geometry but depends on the shape of the absorber. For a spherical absorber it
is given by 2
Sin r
C 
0
sph 2
4 Sin

Where r is the rim angle of the parabola.


Maximum concentration is achieved for r 
2
 Parabolic Trough Concentrator
• Linear concentrators with parabolic cross section have been studied
extensively both analytically and experimentally, and have been proposed
and used for applications requiring intermediate concentration ratios and
temperatures in the range of 100 to 500C. Figure shows a collector of this
type which is part of a power generation system in California. The receiver
used with this concentrator is cylindrical and is enclosed in an evacuated
tubular cover ; flat receivers have also been used with reflectors of this type.

• Designed in a power range of 30 – 150 MW.

• Working Principle:
• Solar Receiver consists of a large array of parabolic trough reflectors that
reflects the sunlight to a receiver tube located along the trough’s focal line.
Heat transfer fluid (HTF) flowing in the tube is heated and then transported
to a heat exchanger / evaporator for steam and power generation.
Parabolic Trough Concentrator
 Improvements in the parabolic trough
concentrators and systems since 1982
Feature From To
Aperture 1.8m 5.76m

Length 20m 90m

Operating Temperature 200C 400C

Optical Efficiency 65% 78%

Unit Capacity 10MW 80MW

Turbine Cycle efficiency 30% 37%

Collector Cost Rs. 4000/m2 Rs. 2500/m2

T Large Area Solar Dish at Milk Dairy at Latur,
Maharashtra t
A large area solar dish has been developed to provide process
heat for milk pasteurization at a dairy of Maharashtra Rajya
Sahakari Dugdh Mahasangh Maryadit (MRSDMM), Maharashtra
under a R&D project sponsored by MNRE to IIT Bombay jointly
with M/ s. Clique Developments Pvt. Ltd. (CDPL), Mumbai. The
solar dish has been installed and commissioned.

The technical specifications of the solar system are

Aperture Area 160 m2

Reflector area 123 m2
Thermal power (annual average) 50-70 kWth
Annual operating hours 3200-3350 hours/ year
Annual fuel savings (Furnace oil) 16 to 24 kilo litre/ year
Operating wind speed up to 54 kmph
Survival wind speed up to 140 kmph
Aerial clear space required for the dish 25 m x 20 m x 18 m
height Clear area required on ground / roof 3 m x 3 m
Tracking power 500 W
Thank You