A novel absorptive/reflective solar concentrator for heat and electricity generation: an optical and thermal analysis

Meng, X.-l. et al. (2016) A novel absorptive/reflective solar concentrator for heat and electricity generation: an optical and thermal analysis. Energy Conversion and Management, 114, pp. 142-153. (doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2016.02.011)

Abstract

The crossed compound parabolic concentrator (CCPC) is one of the most efficient non-imaging solar concentrators used as a stationary solar concentrator or as a second stage solar concentrator. In this study, the CCPC is modified to demonstrate for the first time a new generation of solar concentrators working simultaneously as an electricity generator and thermal collector. The CCPC is designed to have two complementary surfaces, one reflective and one absorptive, and is named as an absorptive/reflective CCPC (AR-CCPC). Usually, the height of the CCPC is truncated with a minor sacrifice of the geometric concentration. These truncated surfaces rather than being eliminated are instead replaced with absorbent surfaces to collect heat from solar radiation. The optical efficiency including absorptive/reflective part of the AR-CCPC was simulated and compared for different geometric concentration ratios varying from 3.6× to 4×. It was found that the combined optical efficiency of the AR-CCPC 3.6×/4× remained constant and high all day long and that it had the highest total optical efficiency compared to other concentrators. In addition, the temperature distributions of AR-CCPC surfaces and the assembled solar cell were simulated based on those heat flux boundary conditions. It was shown that the addition of a thermal absorbent surface can increase the wall temperature. The maximum value reached 321.5 K at the front wall under 50° incidence. The experimental verification was also adopted to show the benefits of using absorbent surfaces. The initial results are very promising and significant for the enhancement of solar concentrator systems with lower concentrations.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Knox, Professor Andrew and Ashraf, Mr Ali and Li, Dr Wenguang and Mullen, Mr Paul and Montecucco, Dr Andrea and Paul, Professor Manosh and Ferre Llin, Dr Lourdes and Siviter, Dr Jonathan and Samarelli, Mr Antonio and Han, Dr Guang and Paul, Professor Douglas
• Authors: Meng, X.-l., Sellami, N., Knox, A. B., Montecucco, A., Siviter, J., Mullen, P., Ashraf, A., Samarelli, A., Ferre Llin, L., Paul, D. P., Li, W., Paul, M. C., Gregory, D. H., Han, G., Gao, M., Sweet, T., Freer, R., Azough, F., Lowndes, R., Xia, X.-l., and Mallick, T. K.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Energy Conversion and Management
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0196-8904
• ISSN (Online): 1879-2227
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Energy Conversion and Management 114:142-153
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
61424	1	Scalable Solar Thermoelectrics and Photovaltaics (SUNTRAP)	Andrew Knox	Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/K022156/1	ENG - ENGINEERING ELECTRONICS & NANO ENG