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2022 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Solar Dish Systems
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Excerpt
ANU
Australian National University
Carousel
some types of solar dishes are mounted upon a frame with similar width to the reflector, and connected to a concrete or metal circular track on the ground via wheels. This arrangement is known as a carousel.
Concentrating solar power (CSP)
a class of concentrating solar thermal (CST) technologies where the application is power generation.
Concentrating solar thermal (CST)
technologies – a class of technologies that use mirrors to focus light coming directly from the sun to a high flux, where the energy may be collected and transformed to heat or chemical energy for use in applications such as power generation and industrial process heat.
CPV
concentrating photovoltaic
DLR
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, or the German Aerospace Center
Full-surface paraboloidal concentrator
a solar dish whose reflector is formed by petal-shaped mirror panels (or gores), with one or two rings of mirrors that themselves form the paraboloidal shape, with minimal backing structure.
Glass-faceted concentrator
a solar dish whose reflector comprises many regular shaped (typically square) mirror facets mounted on parabolic shaped support structures.
Gore
a trapezoidal-shaped mirror panel that typically has a continuous parabolic curved surface that extends from near the center to the perimeter of the solar dish. Sometimes called a petal-shaped mirror panel, because the gores are arranged in a circle like petals of a flower.
Heat transfer fluid
a fluid that flows through the receiver to transport energy in the form of heat away from the focal point of the dish. It may be the working fluid in a power cycle located at the receiver, such as for a Stirling engine, or it may be used to transport energy to the ground for a centralized power cycle (e.g., a steam engine or Rankine cycle power block).
JPL
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a US federally funded research and development center.
MDAC
McDonnell Douglas, a corporation that developed a solar dish in the 1980s.
Mirror facet
a discrete mirror panel, often square in shape. A mirror facet normally has a reflective layer (e.g., a glass or polymeric mirror) bonded to a structural layer that is rigid and strong enough to hold a curved shape (normally a spherical curvature). Common examples of the structure layer include stamped sheet metal and sandwich panels.
NREL
National Renewable Energy Laboratories, a US federally funded research and development center.
Parabolic dish
another term for a solar dish
PCM
phase change material
PDC
Parabolic Dish Collector, an abbreviation used for two dishes (PDC-1 and PDC-2), developed in the early 1980s by JPL.
Pedestal
the central pole that some types of solar dishes are mounted upon.
PKI
Power Kinetics, Inc., a US corporation who developed solar dishes in the early 1980s
Power conversion unit (PCU)
a device that converts energy in the form of heat to mechanical work or power. PCUs that have been considered for use with solar dishes include organic Rankine cycle turbines with toluene, Stirling engines with hydrogen or helium, and open and closed air Brayton cycles.
Receiver
a device located at (or near) the focal point of the reflector that intercepts the concentrated light. Usually, the absorbing surface of the receiver is comprised of metal tubes, and the absorbed radiative energy is converted to thermal energy, which is then transferred elsewhere via a heat transfer fluid.
Reflector
the mirrored surface of a solar dish, whose shape is ideally a truncated paraboloid, the shape obtained by rotating a parabola about its axis. It is a continuous, or faceted, mirrored surface with a single focal point.
RMS
root mean squared is defined as the square root of the mean square
SAIC
the Science Applications International Corporation, a US-based company that developed solar dishes in the 1990s.
Sandia ADDS/WGA
abbreviation used to describe the dish developed jointly by Wilkinson, Goldberg & Associates (WGA) and Sandia as part of the Advanced Dish Development System (ADDS) program.
Sandwich panels
a structural panel that includes two face sheets (stiff structural layers, e.g., sheet metal) separated by a low density core material (e.g., polymeric foam, metal honeycomb)
SBP
German company schlaich, bergermann und partner
SERI
Solar Energy Research Institute, the predecessor of NREL
SES
Stirling Energy Systems, a corporation that developed solar dishes in the USA.
SG4
Solar Generator 4, the name given to the second “Big Dish” built at the Australian National University in Australia.
SKI
Solar Kinetics, Inc., a US corporation that developed solar dishes
Slope Error
at a single point on the mirror, slope error is defined as the difference between the actual measured surface normal vector and the ideal surface normal. To describe the accuracy of a surface, the root mean squared (RMS) value of multiple measurements is commonly used.
Solar dish
a type of concentrating solar thermal (CST) technology that uses mirrors to focus light coming directly from the sun to a point, for collection and use for power generation, thermal or thermochemical processes.
SRTA
Stationary Reflector/Tracking Absorber, a style of dish where the reflector is a stationary segment of a sphere, and the absorber must be moved so its axis is always aligned with solar rays passing through the sphere center.
STEP
the Solar Total Energy Project, which was one of the earliest dish development projects in the USA.
Stretched-membrane concentrator
a solar dish whose reflector is formed from a continuous thin metal membrane stretched across a stiff circular drum, with a second membrane closing off the space behind. A vacuum is then applied to shape and hold the membranes in position.
TBC
the Test Bed Concentrators, solar dishes tested at Sandia in the USA.
THEK
the thermo-helio-electricity-kW program, which was an early dish development program in France.
Thermal efficiency
defined here as the ratio of the energy absorbed by the working fluid and the energy that is incident upon the receiver. Definitions vary between different publications.
Tracking system
the actuation system that moves the solar dish allowing it to follow the path of the sun through the sky. Movement is required about two different axes. Actuation comes in many forms, such as via hydraulic rams, screw jacks, slewing rings, rack and pinions, and wheel drives.