The authors discuss the application potential of desalination for a novel low-cost solar thermal technology called the integrated compound parabolic concentrator (ICPC). This collector is designed using nonimaging optic principles, previously introduced in last year’s SPIE conference, 2019. Optical and thermal models are demonstrated, with preliminary experimental results. When coupled with a latent heat thermal storage system, the combined effort supplies sufficient heat demand for thermal desalination processes.
Solar photovoltaic / thermal (PVT) technologies are well suited to provide distributed and renewable electricity, space heating, and hot water in buildings. The high cost of current PVT technologies, however, remains a barrier to implementation as they compete for roof space with low cost PV. To reduce costs, a new kind of PVT collector has been developed which replaces traditional packaging materials with a low cost nonimaging optic and thermally efficient aluminum minichannel. A 20-tube (~2.4 m2 aperture) prototype has been fabricated, demonstrating 57.4% thermal efficiency and 12.3% electric efficiency at 20 °C, with a stagnation temperature of ~80 °C. Based on this data we estimate the PVT collector will generate 226 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and 603 kWh of heat per square meter each year for a solar resource of 5.5 kWh/m2/day. In doing so, each installed square meter will replace 1280 kWh of natural gas consumption and 183.8 kg of CO2 emissions. Technical performance is comparable with commercial PVT systems today, but with a much lower estimated module cost of $81/m2 ($0.54/WDC). A side-by-side analysis indicates the PVT system would cost 15% less and use 30% less roof space than an equivalently sized PV+T system.
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