The assessment of a solar parabolic trough facility for power generation in tropical climates

The solar parabolic trough power plant highly depends on geographic location and meteorological conditions. The absence of performance evaluation under tropical climatic conditions is a barrier to adopting this technology by local industries. As such, the foundation of this study is to provide successful evidence on the applicability of the solar parabolic trough concentration in the tropical environment. Local weather data, including solar radiation, ambient temperature, and humidity, have been acquired for around a year and used as input to design and fabricate an experimental solar parabolic trough collector facility. Five custom-made parabolic concentrating units coupled with evacuated tube receivers have been assessed. Experiments and performance evaluations have been carried out using the developed experimental model for five days. The maximum temperatures for preheating and superheater were 45.7°C and 165°C, respectively. The maximum average efficiency of the solar parabolic trough power plant was 6.5, with a maximum net electrical power of 1083 W. The maximum instantaneous thermal efficiencies delivered by the facility reached 22.5, while the maximum optical efficiency was around 27. © 2023 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.