Concentrated solar energy is a promising source of energy which is currently attracting many efforts to enhance its exploitation. In particular, parabolic trough collectors for low enthalpy processes is an emerging technology. Lately, many work is done focused on the improvement of these devices. One technique to achieve this is by augmenting the heat transfer in the receiver tube by inserting ...

Recently, increase in the cost of fossil fuels and taking into consideration the environmental effects of exploiting them, caused many researchers and governments to find some ways to make use of renewable energies more cost-effectively. Solar energy is a category of renewable energies which could be harvested via several technologies. One of the most practical methods is using parabolic trough...

Compared with recirculation and injection modes, once-through direct steam generation (DSG) parabolic troughs are simpler to construct and require the lowest investment. However, the heat transfer fluid (HTF) in once-through DSG parabolic trough systems has the most complicated dynamic behavior, particularly during periods of moving shadows caused by small clouds and jet contrails. In this pape...

Submitted: May 2, 2013; Accepted: Jun 13, 2013; Published: Jul 28, 2013 Abstract: Despite the recent interest of Saudi Arabia in the solar energy as a renewable source of energy, no effort yet has been directed towards the Parabolic Trough Concentrator (PTC) technology which considers being one of the cheapest and most effective technologies for solar power. In the present paper, the performanc...

The utility solar power plants were reviewed and classified by two basic groups: direct thermal concentrating solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV). CSP as Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) of 100 MW solar power plants (SPP) is suggested and suitable to provide solar thermal power for Qatar. Although, LFC had enough experience for small projects, it is still need to work in large scale plant s...

A TRNSYS component (Type 262) has been written to simulate a concentrating PV/Thermal collector. The component is based on a dynamic model of a concentrating PV/Thermal collector, which includes thermal capacitance effects, and detailed equations describing the temperature dependent energy flow between the collector and surroundings. The CHAPS system, a 30x concentration parabolic trough PV/The...

The direct steam generation (DSG) in parabolic trough collectors is an attractive option regarding the economic improvement of parabolic trough technology for solar thermal electricity generation in the multi Megawatt range. The European DISS project has proven the feasibility of the direct steam generation under real solar conditions in more than 4000 operation hours. Within the European R&D p...