Solar Thermal System
Solar Thermal System
Solar thermal systems convert sunlight to heat
Solar thermal system
• Solar thermal systems are cost effective at low temperatures
for water heating or cooking
• The basic principle of solar thermal utilization is the
conversion of short-wave solar radiation into heat
• If radiation incidences on material a certain part of the
radiation is absorbed. A body’s capacity to absorb radiation is
called absorbing capacity or absorption α
• An ideal black body absorbs radiation at every wavelength
and therefore has an absorption coefficient equal to one.
• In solar thermal systems the absorber is normally part of a
collector. Other components of the collector are frame, cover
and insulation.
Solar collectors
• Solar collectors transform solar radiation into
heat and transfer that heat to a medium
(water, fluid or air).
Solar collectors- Types
1. Flat plate
2. Parabolic Trough
3. Parabolic Dish
4. Solar Central Receiver (Solar
Power Tower)
5. Lens Concentrators
Flat-plate collectors
• Flat-plate collectors are the most widely used kind of collectors in the
world for domestic water-heating systems and solar space
heating/cooling.
• The first accurate model of flat plate solar collectors was developed by
Hottel and Whillier in the 1950's.
A typical flat-plate
collector consists of an
absorber, transparent
cover sheets, and an
insulated box.
Flat plate Collector
• The absorber is usually a sheet of high-thermal conductivity metal
such as copper or aluminium, with tubes either integral or attached.
• The radiation is absorbed by absorber plate, which is coated with
black absorber paint. The fluid tubes, which are connected to
absorber plate, absorb the heat and transferred to the water
passing through the tubes and gets heated. The hot water collected
from all the tubes flow into a storage tank
• The insulated box reduces heat loss from the back or the sides of
the collector.
• The cover sheets allow sunlight to pass through the absorber but
also insulate the space above the absorber to prevent cool air to
flow into this space.
Flat plate collector
Flat-plate collectors
• Evacuated (or Vacuum) Tubes
are provided to reduce heat
loss due to conduction and
convection. (vacuum is a heat
insulator).
• Different construction types
are available:
• Heat pipes or direct flow
• All glass tubes
• With or without concentrator
Cylindrical parabolic concentrating collector
• In this type of collector, the radiation coming on
concentrator is diverted to absorber tube, which is
covered with glass tube to avoid re-radiation loss.
• The heat from the absorber tube is transmitted to the
fluid passing and gets heated up.
• The hot liquid flows out to a storage tank for further
application.
• The direction of concentration is changed with the sun
movement by providing single axis tracking.
• The temperature attained by the collector is 100-3000C.
Paraboloid concentrating collector
• This type of collector is provided with two
axis tracking and is free to move both on
vertical and horizontal axis. The radiation
received on the collector is reflected towards
the concentrator. The concentrator, which is
coated with absorber coating, is heated up
with concentrated radiation. High
temperature (above 10000C) can be attained
with this type of collector.
Cylindrical parabolic concentrating collector
Paraboloid concentrating collector
Concentrate solar energy through use of mirrors or lenses.
Concentration factor (“number of suns”) may be greater than 10,000.
Parabolic Troughs
Parabolic mirror reflects solar energy onto a receiver (e.g. a evacuated tube).
Parabolic trough design
• These plants use a large field of
parabolic trough collectors which
track the sun during the day and
concentrate the solar radiation on
a receiver tube located at the
focus of the parabolic shaped
mirrors.
• A heat transfer fluid passes
through the receiver and is
heated to temperatures required
to generate steam and drive a
conventional Rankine cycle steam
power plant.
• A parabolic trough is constructed
as a long parabolic mirror that is
usually coated silver or polished
aluminium.
Power Tower design
• The solar power tower is
a system that uses many
solar reflectors called
heliostats to reflect the
energy of the sun to a
central tower.
• The energy of the sun
works to heat a fluid like
water, air, liquid metals,
or molten salts which
circulates through the
tower.
• This hot fluid can be used
to turn a turbine for
power generation.
Parabolic Dish
• Parabolic dish/engine systems
utilize an array of parabolic dish-
shaped mirrors to reflect and
concentrate the incoming solar
radiation directly hitting the array
of dishes back onto a single
receiver located at the focal point
of the dish.
• Motors are used to continuously
track the sun in two axes so that
the incoming solar radiation is
always hitting the mirrors at the
optimal angle to reflect and
concentrate the most sunlight to
the receiver
Solar Collectors
Paraboloid collectors
Solar collectors
LENS CONCENTRATORS
PARABOLIC TROUGH
Solar Power Tower
10 MW Power tower in Barstow, California.
The temtemperature that can be achieved in the absorber depends on the
concentration factor.
Concentration ratio = Aperture area over which light is collected = (Collector dia)2
Aperture area over which light is concentrated (Receiver dia)2
Solar Thermal Applications
1.Heating and Cooling of buildings
2. Solar water and air heating
3. Salt production by evaporation of seawater
4. Solar distillation
5. Solar drying of agricultural products
6. Solar cookers
7. Solar water pumping
8. Solar ponds
9.Solar refrigeration
10.Solar green houses
11.Solar thermal power generation
10. Solar furnaces
11. Industrial process heat
Solar Water heating
This includes heating water for use in our home
for cooking, bathing and cleaning, or for
heating swimming pool water or even
providing space heating in winter.
These systems have been refined and improved
and widely used over the years to the point
where they pay for themselves in energy
savings while making people’s lives more
comfortable and lowering their energy bills.
Simplest heating system
Popular applications in the United States include facilities that
use a great deal of hot water, such as this army laundry in
Massachusetts.
Energy units and their conversion
1 joule = 1 N-m
1 kWh = 3600kJ
1 calorie = 4.182 J
1 BTU = 1055 J
(British thermal unit)
1 megajoule = 278 kWh
1 TOE = 11634 kWh
( ton of oil equivalent)
