Abstract
The performance of concentrated solar power plants with parabolic trough collectors (PTCs) can be enhanced by introducing troughs with an optimized mirror profile. Therefore, the present work introduces a method for achieving optimum trough profiles (TPs). Advanced numerical investigation is performed using the computational fluid dynamics code Ansys Fluent. Multi‐objective multidimensional optimization is implemented to obtain two optimum profiles; namely OTP1 and OTP2. Results show that these profiles improve the overall efficiency by 8.3% and 7.1% under different operating conditions and incidence angles compared to a PTC with the same aperture area. Moreover, the surface areas of OTP1 and OTP2 are less than that of the PTC by 12.3% and 10.7%, respectively. This reduces the mirror cost, required amount of wash water, and wash time. Analysis of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) without thermal energy storage (TES) shows that the implementation of OTP1 and OTP2 reduces the LCOE compared to that of the PTC by 2.6% and 2.3%, respectively. Moreover, a significant reduction in the LCOE is achieved by applying TES under typical Egyptian operating conditions. Implementing 6 h of TES reduces the LCOE compared to the case without TES by 34.5%, 35.3%, and 35.1% for the PTC, OTP1, and OTP2, respectively.
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