Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

3X CPC solar collector. Technical progress report, 7 May-7 November 1978

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5665564
A 2.6X concentrating high temperature, non-tracking solar energy collector has been designed and prototypes are being built. The key design criteria for optimization of the design was to obtain a maximum collector energy gain to cost ratio at an operating temperature of 400/sup 0/F. The selected collector is about 4 feet by 9 inches deep and is a completely housed unit with a glass cover to protect the reflectors and receivers from the environment. There are six each 45-inch long CPC cusp-shaped reflector assemblies design-matched to the General Electric evacuated receiver. The reflector design is a truncated 4.1X CPC which requires the collector tilt angle to be adjusted four times each year. A ray tracing program was used in conjunction with a math model to calculate predicted annual heat gain for many collector configurations. These heat gains were then compared with the specific costs associated with each of the collector components to select the most cost effective collector design with an additional consideration being mass producibility of the collector. A serpentine design compatible with the selected collector and its operating conditions has been designed and tested. A survey of available heat transfer fluids has been completed and a fluid with properties acceptable for use in a collector system has been recommended.
Research Organization:
Chamberlain Mfg. Corp., Waterloo, IA (USA). Research and Development Div.
OSTI ID:
5665564
Report Number(s):
ALO-4239
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English