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Volume II: Research on Solar Collector
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Volume II: Research on Solar Collector

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A2: Solar Energy and Photovoltaic Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 7093

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Loreto Valenzuela

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CIEMAT, Plataforma Solar de Almería, Carretera de Senés km. 4,5, P.O. Box 22, E-04200 Tabernas-Almería, Spain
Interests: solar energy; solar thermal energy; csp; parabolic trough
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

In the last decade, large-scale deployment in the commercial use of tracking solar collectors has occurred thanks to new large solar power plants using parabolic troughs or solar tower plants. This fact has piqued the interest of the research community and of industry in new optical designs of solar collectors, but also in investigating the performance, limitations, and operational and maintenance issues of current solar collector designs, including specific research on receivers, optical concentrators, tracking systems, etc. It has been also found that in some cases there is a lack of standard test procedures to perform a complete characterization of specific designs of solar collectors, especially for those developed for high solar-energy concentrations (line-focus or point-focus solar collectors of large aperture).

This Special Issue is intended to invite recent research on solar collectors for medium temperature applications, both line-focus and point-focus, conceived for industrial process heat or combined thermal and electrical applications (e.g., concentrated photovoltaic thermal CPV/T solar collectors), and high temperature applications, independently if the final application is the coupling of the solar system to a power block for electricity production or the supply of high-temperature thermal energy to any industrial application.

Research on parabolic troughs, linear Fresnel collectors, parabolic dishes, heliostats, and/or any other innovative tracking solar collector design is welcome to this Special Issue, whose main emphasis is on articles related to solar collectors’ development, testing, and/or performance and not to specific applications of the technology.

Dr. Loreto Valenzuela
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • concentrated solar-energy
  • tracking solar collector
  • parabolic trough
  • CPVT
  • linear Fresnel
  • parabolic dish
  • heliostat

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2777 KiB  
Article
A Linear Hybrid Concentrated Photovoltaic Solar Collector: A Methodology Proposal of Optical and Thermal Analysis
by Eduardo Venegas-Reyes, Naghelli Ortega-Avila, Manuel I. Peña-Cruz, Omar J. García-Ortiz and Norma A. Rodríguez-Muñoz
Energies 2021, 14(23), 8155; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14238155 - 05 Dec 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1561
Abstract
The photovoltaic cell surface in linear hybrid concentrated solar collectors receives non-uniform radiative flux, causing additional thermal stress due to hot spots and reducing its electrical performance and durability. The current study proposes a parametric methodology to determine the optimal receiver displacement required [...] Read more.
The photovoltaic cell surface in linear hybrid concentrated solar collectors receives non-uniform radiative flux, causing additional thermal stress due to hot spots and reducing its electrical performance and durability. The current study proposes a parametric methodology to determine the optimal receiver displacement required in a linear Cassegrain-type hybrid solar collector. The aim was to achieve a minimal non-uniformity distribution and a high radiative flux over the photovoltaic cells, considering optical errors close to real environment conditions and analyzing the heat transfer to determine the electrical and thermal efficiencies. The developed methodology was applied to analyze a case study with a receiver width of 0.125 m and rim angle of 80° and using a commercial silicon photovoltaic cell that supports up to 7000 W/m2. After applying the methodology, a hybrid solar collector with a concentration ratio of 13.0 and receiver displacement of 0.14 m is recommended. As a result, 5728 W/m2 of average radiative flux with non-uniformity lower than 4% was achieved. Thus, thanks to the proposed configuration, a low non-uniformity and high radiative flux were achieved, benefiting the photovoltaic cells’ life while improving their operation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Volume II: Research on Solar Collector)
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21 pages, 4907 KiB  
Article
Energy and Exergy (2E) Analysis of an Optimized Solar Field of Linear Fresnel Reflectors for a Conceptual Direct Steam Generation Power Plant
by Eduardo González-Mora and Ma. Dolores Durán-García
Energies 2021, 14(14), 4234; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14144234 - 13 Jul 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2073
Abstract
Direct steam generation is a promising alternative to conventional heat transfer fluids for solar thermal power plants using linear concentrators because water and steam do not have thermal and chemical stability problems. The novelty of this study, an energy and exergy (2E) analysis, [...] Read more.
Direct steam generation is a promising alternative to conventional heat transfer fluids for solar thermal power plants using linear concentrators because water and steam do not have thermal and chemical stability problems. The novelty of this study, an energy and exergy (2E) analysis, was that it was performed on several configurations of a conceptual direct steam generation solar power plant with optimized Fresnel reflectors in Agua Prieta, Mexico coupled with a regenerative steam Rankine power cycle to quantify their efficiency and establish a reference for future implementation of this technology in concentrated solar power plants in Mexico. The thermal model was assumed to be a 1D steady-state flow and validated against results in the literature. It was then applied directly to a case study to determine the size of the solar field. The design point was the lowest solar irradiance day, and evaluating the solar multiple with the highest solar irradiance, taking care not to oversize the solar field, as suggested for solar plants without energy storage. Comparing the performance of the optimized Fresnel field against the FRESDEMO field of Plataforma Solar de Almería, a considerable decrease in the length of the loop has been demonstrated with a low reduction in thermal efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Volume II: Research on Solar Collector)
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31 pages, 8530 KiB  
Article
Selection of Solar Concentrator Design Concepts for Planar Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Devices
by Simon Caron, Marc Röger and Michael Wullenkord
Energies 2020, 13(19), 5196; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13195196 - 05 Oct 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2672
Abstract
Photoelectrochemical water splitting is a promising pathway for solar-driven hydrogen production with a low environmental footprint. The utilization of solar concentrators to supply such water splitting devices with concentrated solar irradiation offers great potential to enhance the economic viability of water splitting at [...] Read more.
Photoelectrochemical water splitting is a promising pathway for solar-driven hydrogen production with a low environmental footprint. The utilization of solar concentrators to supply such water splitting devices with concentrated solar irradiation offers great potential to enhance the economic viability of water splitting at “sunny” site locations. In this work, we defined a set of functional requirements for solar concentrators to assess their suitability to power such water splitting devices, taking into account concentrator optical performance, device coupling efficiency, perceived system complexity, as well as technological costs and risks. We identified, classified and compared a broad range of existing solar concentrator design concepts. Our geometrical analysis, performed on a yearly basis with a one-minute time step, shows that two-axis tracking concentrators with water splitting devices positioned parallel to the optical aperture plane exhibit the highest potential, given the initial conditions applied for the device tilt constraints. Demanding an angle of at least 20° between horizontal and the front side of the water splitting device, allows the device to be operational for 97% of the daylight time in Seville, Spain. The relative loss with respect to the available direct normal irradiance is estimated to 6%. Results moderately depend on the location of application, but generally confirm that the consideration of tilt angle constraints is essential for a comprehensive performance assessment of photoelectrochemical water splitting driven by concentrated sunlight. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Volume II: Research on Solar Collector)
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