Novel Solar Parabolic Trough Collector System for Electrical Generation and Heating/Cooling Purposes

The present study investigates the implementation of a new design of solar parabolic trough collector. Concentrating parabolic solar collectors are considered efficient collectors in comparison to the flat solar collectors since they are able to produce higher temperatures that reach to about 400°C in comparison to flat collectors of about 150°C. More specifically, the implementation of triple receivers design is proposed to a single solar trough collector in order to improve its efficiency. The addition of two pipes receivers above the common main receiver will form a triangle shape arrangement thus energy being absorbed and converted to working fluid will be maximized, opening the door to limit the number of solar trough collectors needed, increase the collector efficiency and provide a larger amount of hot working fluids that can be implemented for electric generation, heating/cooling purposes.