On-site parabolic-trough collector characterization in solar district heating plant under quasi-dynamic conditions

Abstract

The parabolic-trough collectors (PTC) are the technology most widely used worldwide in concentrating solar power (CSP) and solar thermal electrical (STE) plants. This kind of collectors have not been certified during the first decades of the CSP plant installation because of the absence of a standard for testing these large-size collectors. The existing standards for testing solar collectors were not adapted to its peculiarity. In 2018 a standard IEC 62862-3-2 has been published especially for large-size PTC testing. In the present work, this methodology has been validated in-situ in a solar heating plant in Denmark on the solar field of six PTC rows, using the monitoring data of 15 testing days selected within more than one year. Furthermore, different possible improvements are proposed.