Medium temperature concentrators for solar thermal applications

Abstract

Medium temperature solar thermal applications have received remarkable interest in the recent years in both residential and industrial sectors. Solar concentrating systems can serve properly such applications with a temperature range of 80-250°C, taking advantage of their sun light focusing characteristic and high thermal and optical performance. Improvements and developments in the field of medium temperature solar thermal concentrators over the last 6 years are reviewed and analyzed in this article. Different types of solar thermal concentrators are examined, and a critical comparison among different concentrators is carried out based on the performance and the applicability. The most successful solar thermal applications are also presented along with the recent developments in sun-tracking technologies. It has been shown that the choice and design of the optimal concentrating system is largely dependent on the specific characteristics and nature of each application. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press.