Renewable Energy Technology

Solar Thermal collectors

Dr. Saeed Mahmud Ullah

Professor
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University of Dhaka
 Solar thermal collectors
• A solar collector is a device that collects and/or
concentrates solar radiation from the Sun. These devices are
primarily used for active solar heating and allow for the heating
of water for personal/commercial use.
 Selective surface
• According to Planck’s Law, the wavelength of radiation emitted from a
surface is proportional to the temperature of the surface.
• Therefore, an ideal selective surface for solar collectors should strongly
absorb electromagnetic radiation (light) in the visible range and only
weakly emit radiation back in the infrared range of the spectrum, so that
the maximum amount of energy from the incoming sunlight is used to
heat water.
 Several coating methods for selective surfaces are used in the
manufacture of solar collector absorber plates:
• Chemical
• Electroplated
• Vapour deposited
• Oxide
 Chemical coating
• Chemical coatings are usually sprayed onto the absorber plate metal, with
or without the use of electricity.
• These coatings enhance the absorption of the solar radiation.
• The thickness of the chemical coating is proportional to the selectivity of
the surface. That is, the coating thickness influences not only the
absorptivity of the surface, but also the emissivity (how easily the surface
emits the longer wavelength IR radiation).
• Despite the low relative cost and ease of application, chemical coatings
are often undesirable because of the temperatures reached inside
collectors, which can cause a degradation in the chemical coatings.
• For example, black paint applied to the plate is considered to be a
chemical coating. At high temperatures, the paint is likely to melt or burn
off the surface, releasing volatile organic compounds into the
environment.
 Electroplated
• Electroplated coatings are the most widely used coatings in the solar
collector industry. These coatings are applied to the absorber plate metal
using traditional electroplating technology.
• Prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures (around 200oC) and
humidity can cause slow degradation in the selective coating as oxidation
and crystal lattice reconstruction occurs.
• Black Chrome, a common electroplated coating used in the manufacture
of solar collectors is relatively stable, particularly in humid, tropical
conditions.
 Vapor deposited
• Vapor deposited coatings are not traditionally used in flat
plate collectors, as there are a number of significant
engineering problems which are yet to be overcome.
However, they are used extensively in evacuated collectors,
which utilize a partial vacuum, such as the receivers in high
temperature solar thermal systems.
 Oxide
• Oxide coatings were the first type of coating used in solar
collectors. Metals used in early solar collectors, such as
copper and iron underwent natural oxidation, which have
desirable absorptivity. However, as the oxidation processes
occur naturally, they are difficult to control, which results in a
change in the emissivity of the material and eventual
degradation of the efficiency of the collector.
 Types of solar thermal collectors
• Flat plate solar thermal collector
• Evacuated tube solar thermal collector
• Compound parabolic collector
• Sun tracking concentrating collectors
 Flat plate collectors
• A solar collector is a special kind of heat exchanger that transforms
solar radiant energy into heat.
• In the solar collector, energy transfer is from a distant source of
radiant energy to a fluid. The flux of incident radiation is, at best,
approximately 1100 W/m2 (without optical concentration), and it is
variable.
• The wavelength range is from 0.3 to 3 μm, which is considerably
shorter than that of the emitted radiation from most
energy-absorbing surfaces.
• Flat-plate collectors can be designed for applications requiring
energy delivery at moderate temperatures, up to perhaps 100◦C
above ambient temperature. They use both beam and diffuse solar
radiation, do not require tracking of the sun, and require little
maintenance. They are mechanically simpler than concentrating
collectors.
• The major applications of these units are in solar water heating,
building heating, air conditioning, and industrial process heat.
 The important parts of a typical liquid heating flat-plate solar collector are:
• ‘‘black’’ solar energy-absorbing surface with means for transferring the
absorbed energy to a fluid,
• envelopes transparent to solar radiation over the solar absorber surface
that reduce convection and radiation losses to the atmosphere, and
• back insulation to reduce conduction losses.
 Absorbed solar radiation by collector
• The prediction of collector performance requires information on
the solar energy absorbed by the collector absorber plate.
• incident radiation has three different spatial distributions: beam
radiation, diffuse radiation, and ground-reflected radiation, and
each must be treated separately
• Using the isotropic diffuse concept on an hourly basis, the
absorbed radiation S

b, d and g stands for beam, diffuse and ground

α, τ and ρ stands for absorption, transmittance and reflectance
The geometric factor Rb is the ratio of beam radiation normal to
the tilted surface to that normal to a horizontal surface
 Energy Balance Equation
In steady state, the performance of a solar collector is
described by an energy balance that indicates the distribution
of incident solar energy into
▪ useful energy gain,
▪ thermal losses, and
▪ optical losses.
The solar radiation absorbed by a collector per unit area of
absorber S is equal to the difference between the incident
solar radiation and the optical losses.
 Energy Balance Equation
• The thermal energy lost from the collector to the
surroundings by
– conduction,
– convection, and
– infrared radiation
can be represented as the product of a heat transfer coefficient UL
times the difference between the mean absorber plate temperature
Tpm and the ambient temperature Ta.
• In steady state the useful energy output of a collector of area
Ac is the difference between the absorbed solar radiation and
the thermal loss:
 Problem 1
• A family with 5 members plans to install a solar water heater which is
mainly used for bath. The hot-water temperature required for bath is 50
℃, while the annual average temperature of cold water is 23 ℃.
Assuming that each person needs 60 liters of hot water for taking bath a
day. How much heat should be provided by the solar water heater to
satisfy the family’s demand for bath?
(Note: water specific heat Cp is assumed to be 1 kcal/kg-℃, water density
is 1 kg / l. )
Answer 1
 Problem 2
• A solar water heater is equipped with an effective collector
area of 1m2, and the daily cumulative insolation onto the
collector is 4 kWh/m2-day in February. If the average
efficiency of the solar water heater is 0.5, how many
kilo-calories (kcal) of heat can be collected by this solar water
heater during a day?
(Note: 1cal = 4.186J = 4.186 W × s). (1 W=1 J/s)
Answer 2
 Problem 3
• The minimum heat demand is 8100 kcal/day, and there is a
certain solar thermal panel which can offer a heat supply of
1720 kcal/m2 in a day. With the absence of auxiliary heating
device, calculate the required installation area of the solar
thermal panel.
• If the effective area of this thermal panel is 0.8 m2 /piece,
how many pieces of solar panel should be installed to collect
this heat demand?
Answer 3
Evacuated Tube Collector
 Evacuated Tube Collector
• Problem with flat plate collectors is that they are “flat”. This produces one
limitation to their efficiency as they can only operate at maximum
efficiency when the sun is directly overhead at midday. At other times, the
sun’s rays are striking the collector at varying angles bouncing off the
glazing material thereby reducing their efficiency.
• Solar hot water systems that use Evacuated Tube Collectors as their heat
source overcome this problem because the solar collector uses individual
rounded tubes which are always perpendicular to the sun’s rays for most
of the day. This allows a solar hot water system using an evacuated tube
collector to operate at a much high efficiency and temperature for a much
longer period than a conventional single flat plate collector installed
system.
Working principle of heat pipe
evacuated tube collector
 Working principle
• The Evacuated tube collector consists of a number of rows of parallel
transparent glass tubes connected to a header pipe. These glass tubes are
cylindrical in shape. Therefore, the angle of the sunlight is always
perpendicular to the heat absorbing tubes which enables these collectors
to perform well even when sunlight is low such as when it is early in the
morning or late in the afternoon, or when shaded by clouds.
• Each individual tube varies in diameter from between 1" (25mm) to 3"
(75mm) and between 5ʹ (1500mm) to 8ʹ (2400mm) in length depending
upon the manufacturer. Each tube consists of a thick glass outer tube and
a thinner glass inner tube, (called a “twin-glass tube”) or a “thermos-flask
tube” which is covered with a special coating that absorbs solar energy
but prevents heat loss. The tubes are made of borosilicate or soda lime
glass, which is strong, resistant to high temperatures and has a high
transmittance for solar irradiation.
• Unlike flat panel collectors, evacuated tube collectors do not heat the water
directly within the tubes.
• Instead, air is removed or evacuated from the space between the two tubes,
forming a vacuum (hence the name evacuated tubes). This vacuum acts as an
insulator reducing any heat loss significantly to the surrounding atmosphere
either through convection or radiation making the collector much more
efficient.
• With the assistance of this vacuum, evacuated tube collectors generally produce
higher fluid temperatures.
• Inside the each glass tube, a flat or curved aluminium or copper fin is attached
to a metal heat pipe running through the inner tube. The fin is covered with a
selective coating that transfers heat to the fluid (Alcohol liquid) that is circulating
through the pipe. This sealed copper heat pipe transfers the solar heat via
convection of its internal heat transfer fluid to a “hot bulb” that indirectly heats
a copper manifold within the header tank. These copper pipes are all connected
to a common manifold which is then connected to a storage tank, thus heating
the hot water during the day. The hot water can then be used at night or the
next day due to the insulating properties of the tank.
• The insulation properties of the vacuum are so good that while the inner
tube may be as high as 150oC, the outer tube is cooler to touch. This
means that evacuated tube water heaters can perform well and can heat
water to fairly high temperatures even in cold weather when flat plate
collectors perform poorly due to heat loss.
Compound parabolic collector
• These have the capability of reflecting to the absorber all of the incident
radiation within wide limits. The necessity of moving the concentrator to
accommodate the changing solar orientation can be reduced by using a
trough with two sections of a parabola facing each other, as shown in
Figure. Compound parabolic concentrators can accept incoming radiation
over a relatively wide range of angles. By using multiple internal
reflections, any radiation that is entering the aperture, within the collector
acceptance angle, finds its way to the absorber surface located at the
bottom of the collector. In the CPC shown in Fig. 4 the lower portion of the
reflector (AB and AC) is circular, while the upper portions (BD and CE) are
parabolic. CPCs are usually covered with glass to avoid dust and other
materials from entering the collector and thus reducing the reflectivity of
its walls.
 Sun tracking concentrating collector
• Energy delivery temperatures can be increased by decreasing the area
from which the heat losses occur.
• Temperatures far above those attainable by FPC can be reached if a large
amount of solar radiation is concentrated on a relatively small collection
area.
• This is done by interposing an optical device between the source of
radiation and the energy absorbing surface. Concentrating collectors
exhibit certain advantages as compared with the conventional flat-plate
type.
 Solar Water Heater: Thermosyphone
• The principle of thermosyphone just like boiling the water. In
a flat bed collector in cold water flows to the collector, it gets
warm by sunshine and flows upward as it becomes lighter
than cold water and stored in the tank which can be used
directly.
• Solar water heater is basically a flat-plate collector in which
heat transfer fluid is water. Fig. shows the working principle
of solar water heater.
 Solar Cookers
• Solar cookers or ovens are primarily used in
developing nations as a primary method for
cooking using passive solar heat to cook
primary meals

• Insulated box that collects solar radiation

enhanced by reflectors attached to each side

• Helps combat deforestation

Solar Oven in Nepal
 Solar Distiller
• Solar radiation heats up the contaminated
water and allows the water to evaporate,
leaving the contaminant behind

• System design collects distilled water for use

• Technology purifies water and can serve from

one person to a community depending on the
size of system installed
Solar Distiller Technology
 Central Receiver System
• Uses a series of sun tracking mirrors called
heliostats to concentrate sunlight onto a focal
point

• Focal point contains salt that when molten

generates electricity in a steam generator for
large scale energy production

• Capable of producing electricity over a 24 hour

cycle due to salt’s ability to retain heat
Central Receiver System
Solar Chimney