Paper presented to the 3rd Southern African Solar Energy Conference, South Africa, 11-13 May, 2015.
A number of computer performance simulations have been
developed for modelling the performance of parabolic trough
plants, most of which are proprietary or require very detailed
inputs. Hence, there is a need to develop a generalized model
that allows the designer to quickly estimate the solar field size
for a parabolic trough plant at a given location.
In order to cater to this need, a generalized model has been
developed using the equations, correlations and typical values
of certain parameters available in the open literature. The paper
presents the complete details of various equations, correlations,
loss models and the general data to be used by designer and
outlines a systematic procedure coded in MatlabTM to evaluate
solar field size for solar-only parabolic trough plant. Finally, to
demonstrate this procedure, the model has been used to
estimate the solar field size for a small 25 kWe solar-only
trough plant at SVNIT, Surat, India. The results of the model
indicate the solar field size of 245m2 for a 25 kWe plant to be
installed at SVNIT, Surat.
