Towards standardization of in-site parabolic trough collector testing in solar thermal power plants

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of the testing procedure and a validation of the methodology of parabolic trough collector in solar thermal power plants. The applied testing methodology is the one proposed within the Spanish standardization sub-committee AEN/CTN 206/SC117 working group WG2 related to the components for solar thermal power plants. This methodology is also proposed within the international committee IEC TC 117 (Standard draft IEC 62862-3-2 Ed. 1.0). This study is done at Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) in Almeria within the European project STAGE-STE. This paper presents the results of the optical and thermal efficiency of a large-size parabolic trough collector. The obtained values are similar to the previous analysis on this collector by PSA. The results of the tracking system have a good accuracy compared to the acceptance angle of the concentrator.