Concentrating or non-concentrating solar collectors for Solar Aided Power Generation?

Abstract

A hypothesis has been put forward that using non-concentrating solar collectors in a Solar Aided Power Generation (SAPG) plant might be a more efficient and economical option than using concentrating solar collectors. Few previous works on this topic have been carried out due to the perception that concentrating collectors produce higher temperature (solar) heat, thus higher solar thermal to power efficiency of the SAPG plant. However, other factors related to concentrating collectors, such as collecting only direct solar radiation, taking up more land area to install them, and higher capital and operation costs, have been overlooked. In this paper, a detailed comparison study between using concentrating or non-concentrating solar collectors in an SAPG plant have been undertaken. The results show that using non-concentrating solar collectors in an SAPG plant is superior in some cases.