A Simplified Method to Avoid Shadows at Parabolic-Trough Solar Collectors Facilities

Renewable energy today is no longer just an affordable alternative, but a requirement for mitigating global environmental problems such as climate change. Among renewable energies, the use of solar energy is one of the most widespread. Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems, however, is not yet ful...

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Main Authors: Novas Castellano, Nuria, Fernández García, Aránzazu, Manzano Agugliaro, Francisco
Format: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10835/7749
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author Novas Castellano, Nuria
Fernández García, Aránzazu
Manzano Agugliaro, Francisco
author_facet Novas Castellano, Nuria
Fernández García, Aránzazu
Manzano Agugliaro, Francisco
author_sort Novas Castellano, Nuria
collection DSpace
description Renewable energy today is no longer just an affordable alternative, but a requirement for mitigating global environmental problems such as climate change. Among renewable energies, the use of solar energy is one of the most widespread. Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems, however, is not yet fully widespread despite having demonstrated great efficiency, mainly thanks to parabolic-trough collector (PTC) technology, both on a large scale and on a small scale for heating water in industry. One of the main drawbacks to this energy solution is the large size of the facilities. For this purpose, several models have been developed to avoid shadowing between the PTC lines as much as possible. In this study, the classic shadowing models between the PTC rows are reviewed. One of the major challenges is that they are studied geometrically as a fixed installation, while they are moving facilities, as they have a tracking movement of the sun. In this work, a new model is proposed to avoid shadowing by taking into account the movement of the facilities depending on their latitude. Secondly, the model is tested to an existing facility as a real case study located in southern Spain. The model is applied to the main existing installations in the northern hemisphere, thus showing the usefulness of the model for any PTC installation in the world. The shadow projected by a standard, the PTC (S) has been obtained by means of a polynomial approximation as a function of the latitude (Lat) given by S = 0.001 − Lat2 + 0.0121 − Lat + 10.9 with R2 of 99.8%. Finally, the model has been simplified to obtain in the standard case the shadows in the running time of a PTC facility.
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spelling oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-77492023-04-12T19:28:32Z A Simplified Method to Avoid Shadows at Parabolic-Trough Solar Collectors Facilities Novas Castellano, Nuria Fernández García, Aránzazu Manzano Agugliaro, Francisco CSP PTC rows solar shadowing energy renewable energy Renewable energy today is no longer just an affordable alternative, but a requirement for mitigating global environmental problems such as climate change. Among renewable energies, the use of solar energy is one of the most widespread. Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems, however, is not yet fully widespread despite having demonstrated great efficiency, mainly thanks to parabolic-trough collector (PTC) technology, both on a large scale and on a small scale for heating water in industry. One of the main drawbacks to this energy solution is the large size of the facilities. For this purpose, several models have been developed to avoid shadowing between the PTC lines as much as possible. In this study, the classic shadowing models between the PTC rows are reviewed. One of the major challenges is that they are studied geometrically as a fixed installation, while they are moving facilities, as they have a tracking movement of the sun. In this work, a new model is proposed to avoid shadowing by taking into account the movement of the facilities depending on their latitude. Secondly, the model is tested to an existing facility as a real case study located in southern Spain. The model is applied to the main existing installations in the northern hemisphere, thus showing the usefulness of the model for any PTC installation in the world. The shadow projected by a standard, the PTC (S) has been obtained by means of a polynomial approximation as a function of the latitude (Lat) given by S = 0.001 − Lat2 + 0.0121 − Lat + 10.9 with R2 of 99.8%. Finally, the model has been simplified to obtain in the standard case the shadows in the running time of a PTC facility. 2020-03-02T11:52:29Z 2020-03-02T11:52:29Z 2020-02-13 info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2073-8994 http://hdl.handle.net/10835/7749 en https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/12/2/278 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess MDPI
spellingShingle CSP
PTC rows
solar
shadowing
energy
renewable energy
Novas Castellano, Nuria
Fernández García, Aránzazu
Manzano Agugliaro, Francisco
A Simplified Method to Avoid Shadows at Parabolic-Trough Solar Collectors Facilities
title A Simplified Method to Avoid Shadows at Parabolic-Trough Solar Collectors Facilities
title_full A Simplified Method to Avoid Shadows at Parabolic-Trough Solar Collectors Facilities
title_fullStr A Simplified Method to Avoid Shadows at Parabolic-Trough Solar Collectors Facilities
title_full_unstemmed A Simplified Method to Avoid Shadows at Parabolic-Trough Solar Collectors Facilities
title_short A Simplified Method to Avoid Shadows at Parabolic-Trough Solar Collectors Facilities
title_sort simplified method to avoid shadows at parabolic-trough solar collectors facilities
topic CSP
PTC rows
solar
shadowing
energy
renewable energy
url http://hdl.handle.net/10835/7749
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