A bibliography of reports from the solar thermal distributed receiver systems project at Sandia National Laboratories

ABSTRACT:
The research and development described in this document were conducted within the U. S. Department of Energy's Solar Thermal Technology Program. The goal of the Solar Thermal Technology Program is to advance the engineering and scientific understanding of solar thermal technology and to

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establish the technology base from which private industry can develop solar thermal power production options for introduction into the competitive energy market. Solar thermal technology concentrates solar radiation by means of tracking mirrors or lenses onto a receiver where the solar energy is absorbed as heat and converted into electricity or incorporated into products as process heat. The two primary solar thermal technologies, central receivers and distributed receivers, employ various point and line-focus optics to concentrate sunlight. Current central receiver systems use fields of heliostats (two-axis tracking mirrors) to focus the sun's radiant energy onto a single tower-mounted receiver. Parabolic dishes up to 17 meters in diameter track the sun in two axes and use mirrors to focus radiant energy onto a receiver. Troughs and bowls are line-focus tracking reflectors that concentrate sunlight onto receiver tubes along their focal lines. Concentrating collector modules can be used alone or in a multi-module system. The concentrated radiant energy absorbed by the solar thermal receiver is transported to the conversion process by a circulating working fluid. Receiver temperatures range from 100°C in low-temperature throughs to over 1500 C in dish and central receiver systems.

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