Solar Collectors – Design and Applications

Abstract

Solar Energy is a prominent source of renewable energy. In near future the demand of energy is going to be so gigantic that our conventional energy sources would not be able to fulfill it and we will be forced to develop alternative energy sources. This is where solar energy is going to play a major role. Even today we can develop solar collectors for the remote places where the supply of energy is impossible otherwise. Solar energy can be harvested either by using photo voltaic cells or by direct concentration for heating purpose which is done using Solar Collectors. There are different kinds of solar collectors i.e. plane, line focus and point focus. Point collectors can be obtained using a paraboloidal surface. Conventional point collectors are obtained by using a horizontal cut on a paraboloidal surface. In this case the point of concentration is located in the path of incident radiation and also it is required to be moved continuously along with the trough. Another approach for point focus is using a lateral cut also known as Scheffler Collector. The advantages of using a lateral cut are that it makes our focus stationary and located at a distant position. A detailed design of Scheffler Collector along with the application of the collected energy is mentioned in the report.