Solar Thermal Energy

A
Presentation
on
SOLAR THERMAL ENERGY

By
Faiz Khan (2016TH01)
Ramendra Pratap Gond (2016TH08)
Shahrukh Ali (2016TH07)

What is Solar Thermal Energy ?
This is the technology and methods to harness the solar power for the
purpose of producing electrical energy or heating in industrial and the
daily use.
Difference b/w Solar Thermal energy
and Solar PV Energy Conversion
• Solar PV Energy is the direct conversion of solar radiant energy into
electrical energy.
• It uses the photovoltaic effect . This happens due excitation of the

electron and hole pairs when the light falls on it.
• It is a direct method of energy conversion.
• Solar Thermal energy is indirect method of power conversion.
• It is used to heat up some fluid to generate mechanical power which in

turn produces electricity.
History of Solar Thermal Energy Conversion
• Early efforts involved heating the water for daily use.
• People used black painted boxes to trap solar heat to heat up the water.
• Klerence Kemp designed the world’s first commercial solar water heater.
• In early 20th century , the solar heating market seen a boom.

• Augustin Mouchot demonstrated an ice
cream making machine in 1878 using
solar energy.
• Frank Shuman (1897) demonstrated a

solar engine that worked by reflecting
solar energy onto boxes filled with ether
to power a toy engine.
• Shuman built the world’s first solar

thermal power station in Maadi ,Egypt
to operate pump connected to Nile
(1912-1913).
• The solar energy lost its popularity to

availability of cheap coal, oil and non
availability of copper due to war.
Classification of Solar Thermal Energy
According to the achievable temperature , the solar thermal energy is
classified as:
Low temperature Solar Collectors

• T<100 0C
Medium Temperature Solar

Collectors
• 1OO 0C to 300 0C
High Temperature Solar Collectors

• Above 300 0C
Low Temperature Solar Collectors
• Low temperature solar collectors use non concentrated light.
• These are used in water and space heating applications.
• They may be glazed or unglazed i.e. covered with or without glass

sheet.
Low temperature heat collectors have the following types:
• Flat Plate Collectors

• Evacuated Solar Collectors
Flat Plate Collectors

These are the simplest type of solar collectors. These have the following
parts :
1. A dark flat plate absorber

2. A transparent cover that reduces heat loss (glass or polycarbonate)
3. A heat transport fluid to remove heat from the absorber
4. A heat insulating backing
Types of Flat Plate Collectors
• Harp type solar collectors
• Serpentine type
• Flooded Absorber
• Harp type collectors have a harp type shape with a number of pipes running
across the length of the collector.
• In serpentine type, A continuous ‘S’ maximizes the temperature of the water.

But it is bit lesser efficient than Harp type due to the pressure loss that occurs
in the pipe.
• Flooded Absorber type solar collector two layers of metal sheets stamped
together to provide larger area of heat exchange with a marginal boost in the
efficiency.
• Used in residential and district heating system where it may prevent excessive
cost of heating.
• Flat plate collectors have a peak power output of 1.7 KW for an area of 2.26
square m with a nominal flow rate of about 1.6 L/min
Evacuated Tube Collectors
• Evacuated tube heat collectors use air and vacuum as the insulating material.
• Evacuated glass tube prevents conduction as well as convection.
• The vacuum in the tubes can be maintained for about 25 years. Due to its
insulation characteristics, it is the most efficient of all the low temp. solar
collectors.
Solar Air Heaters
• Transfer heat to the air by convection to the surface.
• It is also used in domestic space heating
• Solar air heat is also used in process applications such as drying laundry, crops
(i.e. tea, corn, coffee) and other drying applications
• They are easy to build but they are not as efficient as water heat collectors and
thus require a large area for the required heats
.
Medium Temperature Solar Heat Collectors
• These collectors produce higher temperatures than the low temperature solar
collectors.
• These are used in drying wood for construction and wood chips as a fuel.
• These collectors are also used for cooking as Solar Cooker.
• These collectors are also used to distill the water in places where drinking
water is not easily available. These devices are called solar still.
Solar cooker
Solar cooker has the following types:
• Box or Flat Panel Type Solar Cooker

• Parabolic Solar Cooker
Flat Panel Solar Cooker
• A box cooker has a transparent glass or plastic top
• it may have additional reflectors to concentrate sunlight into the box
• One or more reflectors of shiny metal or foil-lined material may be

positioned to bounce extra light into the interior of the oven chamber
• The box should have insulated sides.
• Cooking containers and the inside bottom of the cooker should be

dark-colored or black.
• The solar box cooker typically reaches a temperature of 150 °C (300 °F)

and takes longer time to cook.
Parabolic Solar Cooker
• It is axially symmetrical and shaped so its cross-section is a parabola.
• The food is kept at its focus for maximum temperature.
• High-performance parabolic solar cookers can attain temperatures

above 290 °C (550 °F).
• They can be used to, stir-fry vegetables, make soup, bake bread, and
boil water in minutes.
Advantages and Limitations of Solar Cooker
• Solar cookers use no fuel. This saves cost.
• No environmental damage as compared to conventional fuels. Since they

are used outside, they do not contribute inside heat, potentially saving
cooling costs.
• No evaporation of oil, vapours in the atmosphere. Thus cleaner cooking.
• Solar cookers are less useful in cloudy weather and near the poles.
• Some solar cookers, especially solar ovens, take longer to cook food than a
conventional stove or oven.
• Some solar cooker designs are affected by strong winds, which can slow
the cooking process
High Temperature Solar Collectors
• High temperature solar collectors like mirrors and lenses are used to
concentrate a large amount of solar energy to small area to produce
heat thereby producing electricity or high temperature heat.
• This is achieved by the concentrating a large amount solar power with

the help of concentrating collectors.
• The temperatures may reach above 500 0C.
• The technologies using concentrated solar power are :
1. Parabolic Trough
2. Dish Sterling
3. Solar Power Tower
4. Fresnel Reflector
Parabolic Trough
• Parabolic trough is a type of solar thermal collector that is straight in one
dimension and curved as a parabola in the other two.
• A Dewar tube, which runs the length of the trough at its focal line,
acquires heat from it.
• The mirror is oriented so that sunlight which it reflects is concentrated on the
tube, which contains a fluid which is heated to a high temperature
• Usually aligned on a north-south axis
• Thermal oil runs through the tube to absorb the concentrated sunlight
• The overall efficiency conversion is 15 % and the maximum temperatures are

about 400 0C
Following are the components of Parabolic trough:
• Collector: is essentially a parabolic mirror or reflector used to concentrate light on

the single point made of borosilicate glass or polymer lined with silver
• Bearing structure: To carry wind loads and weight of concentrator
• Receiver
Dish Stirling
Dish stirling is a solar powered stirling engine which receives its input power from
the concentrated heat of the dish.
• The Stirling Energy Systems (SES), United Sun Systems (USS) and Science
Applications International Corporation (SAIC) dishes at UNLV, and Australian
National University's Big Dish in Canberra, Australia are representative of this
technology.
• Two solar parks using the Stirling Energy Systems or SES systems, are
currently being developed in US with a capacity of 1.4GW.
• It has the following components
• The concentrator : It is not single parabolic dish as it is difficult to manufacture and

assemble, this engine used about 12 seperate mirrors mounted on the dish. The
material is usually glass but fibre resins are also used.
• Tracking system: Tracking system works such that there is never a shadow over the
concentrator, which reduces the collector efficiency. Thus it has a two axial tracking
system.
• Horizontal and vertical movement of the concentrator are actuated with the help of
servomotors.
• Receiver: The receiver is the link between the concentrator and the stirling engine.It is
of two types. Solar only receiver which only operates during the daytime and the
other is the gas burner type, to provide power in the night.
• The rest of the part is the stirling engine.

Solar Power Tower
• The solar power tower, also known as 'central tower' power plants or
'heliostat' power plants or power towers, is a type of solar furnace using a
tower to receive the focused sunlight.
• It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors (called heliostats) to focus the

sun's rays upon a collector tower (the target).
• This focused energy is used to generate steam to drive the turbine to
produce electricity.
• It is often coupled with a thermal energy storage system to store the heat
energy. This energy can be used in night time to produce power.
• The Planta Solar 10 (PS10) in Sanlucar la Mayor, Spain, the 377 MW

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, located in the Mojave Desert are commercial
solar power tower plants
• National Solar Thermal Test Facility, NSTTF (6 MW) located in Albuquerque,

NM, is an experimental solar thermal test facility
Parts of Solar Power Tower
• The collector system (CS) : It contains the collector field and heliostats that
redirect and focuses sunlight on the receiver. The major system elements are
two-axis tracking mirrors
• The receiver : It is a cylindrical tube wall heat exchanger that heats molten
nitrate salt from 290°C (550°F) to 565°C (1050°F)
• Thermal Salt Storage: It stores high temperature nitrate salt 565°C (1050°F) from
the receiver for use by the steam generator, and stores low temperature nitrate
salt 290°C (550°F) from the steam generator for use by the receiver
• The Steam Generation System (SGS) uses thermal energy from the hot nitrate
salt to produce superheated steam.
Fresnel Reflector
• Linear Fresnel reflectors use long, thin segments of mirrors to focus sunlight
onto a fixed absorber located at a common focal point of the reflectors.
• These mirrors are capable of concentrating the sun’s energy to approximately

30 times its normal intensity.
• Multiple absorbers can be used in the improved Compact Fresnel Reflector

technology.
• AREVA Solar (Ausra) has finished construction of the 5 MW Kimberlina Solar
Thermal Energy Plant in Bakersfield, California.
• In March 2009, the German company Novatec Biosol constructed a Fresnel

solar power plant known as PE 1(1.4 MW).
Comparison of different Concentrated Solar Power Technologies
Parabolic Trough Solar Tower Linear Fresnel Dish Stirling
Typical 10-300 10-200 10-200 0.01-0.025
capacity
Maturity of Commercially Pilot Pilot projects Demonstration
technology proven commercial projects
projects
Operating 350-550 250-565 390 550-750
temperature
(oC)
Plant peak 14-20 23-35* 18 30
efficiency (%)
Annual solar to 11-16 7-20 13 12-25
electricity
efficiency
Cycle Superheated Superheated Saturated Stirling
Rankine Rankine Rankine
Water 3 (wet cooling) 2-3(wet cooling) 3 (wet cooling) 0.05-0.1
requirement 0.3 (dry cooling) 0.25(dry cooling) 0.2 (dry cooling) (mirror
(m3/MWh) washing)
References
• www.irena.org/Publications
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_linear_Fresnel_reflector
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cooker
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_collector
Thank you !!!

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SOLAR THERMAL ENERGY

Faiz Khan (2016TH01)

Ramendra Pratap Gond (2016TH08)

Shahrukh Ali (2016TH07)

• It uses the photovoltaic effect . This happens due excitation of the

• It is a direct method of energy conversion.

• Solar Thermal energy is indirect method of power conversion.

• It is used to heat up some fluid to generate mechanical power which in

• In early 20th century , the solar heating market seen a boom.

• Frank Shuman (1897) demonstrated a

• Shuman built the world’s first solar

• The solar energy lost its popularity to

Low temperature Solar Collectors

Medium Temperature Solar

High Temperature Solar Collectors

• These are used in water and space heating applications.

• They may be glazed or unglazed i.e. covered with or without glass

• Flat Plate Collectors

Flat Plate Collectors

1. A dark flat plate absorber

• In serpentine type, A continuous ‘S’ maximizes the temperature of the water.

• Evacuated glass tube prevents conduction as well as convection.

• It is also used in domestic space heating

• These collectors are also used for cooking as Solar Cooker.

• Box or Flat Panel Type Solar Cooker

• it may have additional reflectors to concentrate sunlight into the box

• One or more reflectors of shiny metal or foil-lined material may be

• The box should have insulated sides.

• Cooking containers and the inside bottom of the cooker should be

• The solar box cooker typically reaches a temperature of 150 °C (300 °F)

• The food is kept at its focus for maximum temperature.

• High-performance parabolic solar cookers can attain temperatures

• No environmental damage as compared to conventional fuels. Since they

• No evaporation of oil, vapours in the atmosphere. Thus cleaner cooking.

• This is achieved by the concentrating a large amount solar power with

• The temperatures may reach above 500 0C.

• The technologies using concentrated solar power are :

• Usually aligned on a north-south axis

• The overall efficiency conversion is 15 % and the maximum temperatures are

• Collector: is essentially a parabolic mirror or reflector used to concentrate light on

• The concentrator : It is not single parabolic dish as it is difficult to manufacture and

• The rest of the part is the stirling engine.

• It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors (called heliostats) to focus the

• The Planta Solar 10 (PS10) in Sanlucar la Mayor, Spain, the 377 MW

• National Solar Thermal Test Facility, NSTTF (6 MW) located in Albuquerque,

• These mirrors are capable of concentrating the sun’s energy to approximately

• Multiple absorbers can be used in the improved Compact Fresnel Reflector

• In March 2009, the German company Novatec Biosol constructed a Fresnel

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