parabolic trough

This report was released by the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy section of the U.S. Department of Energy in 2004. It highlights a large-scale solar thermal system installed at the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) and breaks down the statistical output.

The system was financed through an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC), which include an average annual savings of $6,700. The system produces up to 50,000 gallons of hot water daily, 1,000 megawatt-hours of electricity and releases approximately 600 tons of CO2.

This manuscript was written by Sandia Corporation with the U.S. Department of Energy in 2008. It reports recent developments of multi-component molten salt formulations that have advantageous properties for applications as heat transfer fluids for parabolic trough solar systems.

These alternative transfer fluids demonstrate stability in the presence of air up to approximately 500 degrees Celsius, and is expected to be inexpensive compared to synthetic organic heat transfer fluids.

This fact sheet was written by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in 2009. The document starts with a brief background on solar thermal energy and then describes the different types of solar thermal systems (parabolic trough, linear fresnal reflectors, dish/engine, power tower).

This paper was presented at the 2008 International Renewable Energy Storage Conference which took place in Berlin, Germany. In 2003/2004, the German government funded a project undertaken by the German Aerospace Center to test a concrete storage module on the Plataforma Solar de Almeria in Spain.

A follow up project developed by Ed. Züblin AG concentrated on cost reduction, storage capacity and thermal conductivity. The design, construction and test results of the concrete storage test module are presented in this paper.

This study presented by Soteris Kalogirou from the Higher Technical Institute in Cyprus provides an extensive overview of solar thermal energy, an historical introduction to its use and development, together with a description of the most common types of collectors (flat-plate, compound parabolic, evacuated tube, parabolic trough, fresnel lens, heliostat field collectors (HFC) and parabolic dish) and applications (solar water heating, space heating and cooling, refrigeration, industrial process heat, desalination, solar thermal power, solar furnaces and chemistry applications).

This 2009 document is the contribution from ESTELA (European Solar Thermal Electricity Association) to the European Commission’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan. The report gives a good overview of the strategic benefits of focusing on solar thermal and connects it with its socio-economic benefits.

This 2009 report looks into the global outlook of concentrating solar power (CSP). The report first looks into the different CSP technologies and makes a comparison based on the advantages and disadvantages. The report also provides an overview of the CSP development by region. For certain countries per region a more detailed assessment is provided. In particular, the potential of the Mediterranean and the MENA region is being assessed.

The authors of this 2008 paper aim to demonstrate the importance concentrating solar power has for desalination of freshwater. Due to the projected growth in economy and population and the anticipated increase in future water consumption in the MENA region, the paper shows that the CSP technology has the potential to provide a solution for the growing water deficits.

This study from 2008 assesses the economic impact of solar thermal electricity in Spain. In particular, the economic analysis is done for three solar thermal technologies: parabolic trough, central tower and parabolic dish. The objective of the conducted study is to estimate the socio-economic impacts coming from the construction of solar thermal power plants in Spain.

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Source: CIEMAT

This document from 2008 looks into the evaluation of the environmental impacts of electricity produced in Spain via solar thermal. The study concerns a life cycle assessment of two technologies in particular i.e. central tower technology and parabolic trough technology and analyses the constructional and environmental impacts of ongoing solar thermal projects in Spain.

The study concludes, among other points, that the environmental profile of both solar thermal technologies is much better than the current mix of technologies used in Spain.

Source: CIEMAT