Abstract
This chapter gives an overview of the parabolic-trough collector (PTC) technology, which has achieved a high degree of maturity. It includes a brief history of the technology, describing the first large solar thermal power plants with PTC (the SEGS plants), the main parameters and basic equations of a typical PTC, design criteria to achieve a good thermal and optical performance, operation, and maintenance issues, and expected technology improvements in working fluids and solar collectors that could be implemented in the short to medium term. Information about PTCs commercially available is also given in this chapter, with technical characteristics of both large and small size collectors. Moreover, the two-tank molten salt system currently used in PTC solar thermal power plants for storing thermal energy during sunlight hours to produce electricity when there is no direct solar radiation is described.
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