A New Facility for Testing Line-Focus Concentrating Solar Collectors for Process Heat Applications
Abstract
This article describes the characteristics and design aspects considered in the definition and construction of an experimental facility for testing tracking solar collectors of small size adequate for supplying thermal energy in the medium temperature range (between 100 to 250 ºC). Manufacturers of tracking solar thermal collectors need to test and to know the real performance parameters of their new designs, and the potential customer needs to have the solar collectors certificated according to standard test methods as ISO 9806:2017. The test facility presented in this paper will meet all these needs because it fulfills the pressure, temperature, heat transfer fluid and flowrate requirements; both to evaluate the designs, and to certify the expected real performance. Additionally, this test facility will also be useful to evaluate components for hydraulic circuits of solar process heat applications up to 250 ºC.