Solar Parabolic trough Collector and their Applications

Abstract

As the world struggles with the energy and environmental crisis, there is an urgent need to develop and promote environmentally benign technologies based on sustainable energy sources. Solar energy is the cheapest and widely available renewable energy source that matches the different applications. This paper presents an overview of the parabolic-trough collectors that have been built and marketed during the past century, as well as the prototypes currently under development. It also presents a survey of systems which could incorporate this type of concentrating solar system to supply thermal energy up to 400˚C, which includes solar thermal power plants, domestic hot water and space heating, solar air-conditioning and refrigeration, industrial process heating, solar desalination system, solar water pumping system, chemistry applications etc.