Experimental performance of shallow solar pond of novel design

Conference · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1983 · Alternative Energy Sources; (United States)

OSTI ID:6560296

Gandhi, M R; Kishore, V V.N.

The high initial cost of solar installations is a limiting factor in the effective and wide spread use of solar energy. There had been considerable achievements in the development of nonconvective, salt gradient solar ponds as a cheap means of collecting and storing solar energy. However, such deep solar ponds are necessarily large in area and can be effectively used only for centralized applications like power generation, desalination etc. On the other hand, a shallow solar pond (SSP) which uses a shallow bed of water for collection of solar energy can be fabricated in any size, and though it is not a cheaper device than a salt gradient pond, it is shown to be a considerably low cost device compared with the conventional flat plate collectors. Our earlier experience on SSPs has shown that inspite of ease of fabrication and cost effectiveness, there are certain operational problems with SSPs. These are: I) large patches of air bubbles forming beneath the plastic cover in touch with water II) rapid deterioration of the floating cover III) daily filling and withdrawal of water etc. To avoid such problems and to make the SSP more compact and manageable, we have designed and fabricated a novel type of a SSP water heating system, which requires no attention and which supplies heat to a storage tank without the necessity of recirculation pumps.

• Research Organization: Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Res. Inst., Bhavnagar
• OSTI ID: 6560296
• Report Number(s): CONF-831205-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Alternative Energy Sources; (United States)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
141000* -- Solar Collectors & Concentrators
CAPITALIZED COST
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COST
DEPTH
DESIGN
DIMENSIONS
ENERGY STORAGE
EQUIPMENT
HEAT STORAGE
HEATING
PERFORMANCE
PONDS
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR HEATING
SOLAR PONDS
SOLAR WATER HEATING
STORAGE
SURFACE WATERS
WATER HEATING