Solar thermal collector

For producing electricity from solar radiation, see solar panel, solar cell, and photovoltaics.
Water heating system deployed on a flat roof. The pipes that carry the heat away can be seen embedded in the absorber, a flat plate painted black. In this example the heat is stored in the tank above the panels.
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A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, but may refer to large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and solar towers or non-water heating devices such as solar cookers or solar air heaters.[1]

Solar thermal collectors are either non-concentrating or concentrating. In non-concentrating collectors, the aperture area (i.e., the area that receives the solar radiation) is roughly the same as the absorber area (i.e., the area absorbing the radiation). A common example of such a system is a metal plate that is painted a dark color to maximize the absorption of sunlight. The energy is then collected by cooling the plate with a working fluid, often water or glycol running in pipes attached to the plate.

Concentrating collectors have a much larger aperture than the absorber area. The aperture is typically in the form of a mirror that is focussed on the absorber, which in most cases are the pipes carrying the working fluid.[2] Due to the movement of the sun during the day, concentrating collectors often require some form of solar tracking system, and are sometimes referred to "active" collectors for this reason.

Non-concentrating collectors are typically used in residential, industrial and commercial buildings for space heating, while concentrating collectors in concentrated solar power plants generate electricity by heating a heat-transfer fluid to drive a turbine connected to an electrical generator.[3]

  1. ^ Norton, Brian (2013-10-11). Harnessing solar heat. Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 978-94-007-7275-5. OCLC 862228449.
  2. ^ Rabl, Ari. (1985). Active solar collectors and their applications. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 1-4294-0091-9. OCLC 614480348.
  3. ^ Sreekumar, S.; Joseph, A.; Kumar C. S., S.; Thomas, S. (2020-03-10). "Investigation on influence of antimony tin oxide/silver nanofluid on direct absorption parabolic solar collector". Journal of Cleaner Production. 249: 588–601. Bibcode:2020JCPro.24919378S. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119378.