How efficient is a solar collector?

The base fluid and aperture area of the solar collector are diathermic oil and 73 m 2, respectively. They found that, the ORC efficiency remained constant at 10% during the year. However, the solar system efficiency was more than 50% and less than 20% in summer and winter, respectively.

How do solar collectors work?

It is evident that solar collectors constitute a major component of any solar energy utilization system. Their operation is based on absorbing the incoming solar radiation, converting it into heat, and transferring this heat to a fluid (usually air, water, or a special heat transfer fluid) flowing through the collector.

What is the exergy efficiency of solar collectors?

The total area of the collectors is equal to 72 m 2. The exergy efficiency of the compact and large units was estimated to be equal to 0.01% and 0.05%, respectively, when considering the exergy of the solar irradiance as the input exergy to the system.

What are solar energy collectors?

Thus solar energy collectors are special kind of heat exchangers that transform solar radiation energy to internal energy of the transport medium. It is evident that solar collectors constitute a major component of any solar energy utilization system.

What is the process of solar energy collection?

The process of solar energy collection is accompanied by the generation of entropy upstream of the collector, downstream of the collector and inside the collector as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 1. Exergy flow diagram.

How do concentrating solar collectors work?

Regarding the sun tracking mechanism accompanying the concentrating solar collectors, there are single-axis tracking collectors (SAT) and two-axes tracking collectors (TAT). The main aim of these sun tracking mechanisms is to adjust the orientation of the aperture area in order to intercept as much as possible solar radiation perpendicular to it.