Scale-Up Considerations of the Sundial Rotating Fresnel Solar Collector

Abstract

In the frame of the ASTEP project two prototypes of the Sundial collector, together with a Phase Change Material Thermal Energy Storage, will be tested integrated with the industrial processes of two sites. However, the size of the pilot systems will not be optimized for commercialization. The present work considers the scale-up of the concept for one of the pilot industrial sites: a dairy industry located in Greece, and how will the thermal losses of the system must be considered with the increased aperture, thermal storage size and energy output. For the scaling up of the system, the capacities of the Sundial, demand and TES were doubled and multiplied by 10, and the thermal losses of both nominal conditions and annual performance were considered. The results showed that the ratio between the piping heat losses and the total available energy decreased when scaling-up the system both in the nominal and in the annual results. Hence, the heat losses lost importance when scaling up, when more energy was available. These facts should be considered when evaluating the performance of the pilots and feasibility of the concept.