Linear concentrated solar power (CSP) collectors harness sunlight’s energy by using big mirrors, which reflect and concentrate the sun’s rays onto a linear receiver tube. The receiver is stocked with a liquid heated by sunlighd is used to heat a conventional power cycle. It generates a turbine which drives an electric generator that creates electricity. Alternatively, steam could be produced directly by the sun’s field, eliminating the need for expensive heat exchangers.
Linear concentrating collector fields comprise many collectors in rows of parallel located in a north-south alignment to maximize summer and annual energy capture. With a single-axis sun-tracking mechanism, this arrangement allows the mirrors to track the sun’s direction between east and west throughout the day, ensuring that the sun’s reflection is continuous on the tubes of the receiver.
Linear systems can also incorporate thermo storage. In these systems,, a collector is extended to allow a storage system to be heated during the day. The extra steam it produces can generate electricity at night or during rainy days. They could also be constructed as hybrids, which means that they utilize fossil fuels to increase solar output in times of low solar radiation. In such a case, the natural gas-fired heater or gas-steam boiler/reheater is employed. Shortly linear systems could be combined with combined cycle systems currently in operation or newly developed coal and natural gas-fired power plants.
PARABOLIC TROUGH SYSTEMS
The most popular CSP system used in the United States is a linea,concentrator, wanchored parabolic T error’s Collectors. In such a fluidtis em fluidbes the receiver are placed on the focal line for each mirror with a shape similar to a parabola. The box is anchored to the mirror’s structure, and thinto d is transfreflectorcross an.d out of solar mirrors’ fields until it is utilized to generate steam (or for a steam/water receiver, it is delivered straighcurledhe tue).
trackers theL REFLECTOR SYSTEMS
A different type of linear concentrator includes the linear Fresnel reflector technology. Mirrors that are flat or slightly curled placed on trackers in the ground are set up for refraction of sunlight on a tube that is fixed over the mirrors. A small mirror with a parabolic shape can be added to the receiver tube to help direct the sunlight.