SOLAR THERMAL ENERGY

Mohammad Alrashdan 173835

Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development
 INTRODUCTION
- Solar power is the flow of energy
from the sun. The primary forms of
solar energy are heat and light.
Sunlight and heat are converted and
absorbed in several ways, for use in
human applications such as heating
and generating electricity

- The Earth receives 174 )PW) of solar radiation at the upper atmosphere. While
traveling through the atmosphere 6% of the incoming solar radiation
(insolation) is reflected and 16% is absorbed. Average atmospheric conditions
(clouds, dust, pollutants) further reduce insolation by 20% through reflection
and 3% through absorption.
 INTRODUCTION
- Atmospheric conditions affect the quality of insolation by diffusing
approximately 20% of the incoming light and altering its spectrum. After
passing through the Earth's atmosphere approximately half the insolation is
in the visible electromagnetic spectrum with the other half mostly in the
infrared and ultraviolet spectrum.
Solar Radiation
Interest in solar energy has prompted the accurate measurement
and mapping of solar energy resources of the globe.
 Solar Radiation
This is normally done using solarimeters. Most solarimeters measurements are
recorded simply as the direct and the diffuse radiation.
A. Pyrheliometer: measure the direct radiation.
B. Albedometer: measure the reflectance of earths surface.
C. Pyranometer: measure the global radiation.

A B C
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.
 History of Solar Thermal Energy

• Early efforts involved heating the water

for daily use. People used black painted
boxes to trap solar heat to heat up the
water.
• Augustin Mouchot demonstrated an ice
cream making machine in 1878 using
solar energy.
• Clarence Kemp designed the world’s
first commercial solar water heater
(1892).
• Frank Shuman (1897) demonstrated a
solar engine that worked by reflecting
solar energy onto boxes filled with ether
to power a toy engine.
 History of Solar Thermal Energy

• In early 20th century , the solar

heating market seen a boom.

• Shuman built the world’s first

solar thermal power station in
Maadi ,Egypt to operate pump
connected to Nile (1912-1913).
GEOMETRY GLOBE-SUN
There are several types of solar charts, the most common ones are the projection
charts:

A. Orthogonal projection: the trajectories of the sun are projected orthogonally on an

horizontal plane.
B. Cylindrical projection: this is a projection made over a conical surface.
C. Stereographic projection: this is a conical projection over an aspheric surface.

A B C
Solar Thermal Energy Applications

SPACE DOMESTIC
WATER
COOLING HEATING

GENERATING DOMESTIC
SPACE
CROP
ELECTRICITY HEATING DRYING

DAY- SOLAR
LIGHTING COOKING
 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 400 0C

High Temperature Solar Collectors

• Above 400 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 air collectors
Flat Plate Collectors
These are the simplest type of solar collectors. These have the following
parts :

1. dark flat plate absorber

2. transparent cover that reduces heat loss (glass or polycarbonate)
3. heat transport fluid to remove heat from the absorber
4. heat insulating backing.
 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.
Flat plate air collectors
• 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
Medium Temperature Solar Heat Collectors
• These collectors produce higher temperatures than the low temperature
solar collectors.

• High temperature solar collectors like mirrors and lenses are used to
concentrate a large amount of solar energy to large area to produce
heat thereby producing electricity or high temperature heat.

• The temperatures may reach 400 0C.

• The technologies using concentrated solar power are :

1. Parabolic Trough
2. 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.
Parabolic Trough
Following are the components of Parabolic trough:

A. 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.
B. Bearing structure: To carry wind loads and weight of concentrator.
C. Receiver.

A B C
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.
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. Dish Sterling
2. Solar Power Tower
Dish Sterling
This system puts the engine itself at the focus of a parabolic dish shaped
mirror. Some modern systems can reach very high conversion
efficiencies, close to 30%. The temperature at the focal point can reach
3000 ºC that can be used to generate electricity, melt steel or to produce
hydrogen fuel. This plant can produce between 7 and 25kW.
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).
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.
Parts of Solar Power Tower
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)
Thank you