A review of Thermal Performance of Solar Concentrator – the future needs

Abstract

Abundant solar energy is freely available almost round the year in India. As per the current scenario of global warming and climatic change, solar energy is the cleanest source in nature. Concentrated solar power (CSP)has hardly contributed to the overall installed solar power capacity in the country. CSP technologies are Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC), Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR), Paraboloid Dish and Solar Power Tower. This paper presents a review of CSP in solar parabolic dish concentrator to understand thermal aspect like thermal efficiency, optical efficiency, useful heat gain, heat losses, solar irradiation, etc. for various applications and current development. The current scenario of global CSP is discussed to meet the future challenges and need of the society.