Abstract:
There is a huge potential of solar energy available in India, given that technology routes for
conversion of solar radiation into heat and electricity. Solar thermal and solar photovoltaic routes
are viable to harness solar energy providing huge scalability. Solar thermal technologies are
based on the concept of concentrating solar radiation to produce steam or hot air which can then
be used for electricity generation using conventional power cycles. Collecting the solar energy,
which has relatively low density, is one of the main engineering tasks in solar thermal power
plant development. Different types of concentrating solar power technologies are available in
literature and various studies have been conducted to improve efficiency of various
concentrators. In order to deliver high temperatures with good efficiency a high performance
solar collector is required. Based on literature survey, it has been found that parabolic trough
solar technology is the most proven and low cost technology. In Parabolic trough concentrator,
parabolic shaped sheets reflect the solar radiation on a linear receiver located at the focus.
Systems with light structures and low cost technology for process heat applications up to 400 ˚C
could be obtained with parabolic trough collectors (PTC).
Under the present study, an attempt has been made to carry out an optical analysis for
sizing of parabolic trough concentrator. Further the performance of the designed parabolic trough
collector with hot water generation system is investigated through experiments. The maximum
value of each of those parameters is observed around noon, when the incident beam radiation is
at its peak. It was observed that average receiver temperature is affected by solar radiation and
wind velocity at instant. Maximum fluid temperature with stainless steel receiver tube with glass
cover has been found as 82.4 ˚C.
Further an attempt has been made to calculate optimum tilt angle for parabolic trough for
each month. An optimum tilt angle has been calculated for parabolic trough by summing up all
the solar beam radiation at various tilt angles of each month. An optimum tilt angle of parabolic
trough at Roorkee (latitude 29.85 ) has been found as 25˚.This study can be useful for future
investigation to optimize the design under different parameter.
