Acceptance Testing and Advanced Evaluation Strategies for Commercial Parabolic Trough Solar Fields

Abstract

The thermal performance of a solar field is measured to rate its overall quality. Therefore, it is typically used as a criterion during phases of commissioning and acceptance. The present paper introduces a novel apporach toward effective testing and evaluation of commercial parabolic trough solar fields during regular dynamic operation conditions. This includes measurement specifications, advanced evaluation of performance data, yielding characteristic performance parameters and their uncertainties, as well as probabilistic simulation of long-term yields. The apporach of advanced acceptance testing and modeling (ATM) is described and applied to demonstrate the implication of measurement equipment on the significance of the results. Three exemplary measurement scenarios are compared. The predicted uncertainties of a reference scenario, a mobile field laboratory and built-in sensors amount to 2.0%, 4.0% and 4.5% of the annual yield respectiviely. They illustrate the advantages of the mobile field laboratory compared to the use of built-in sensor equipment and demonstrate the limitations in view of minimum test and prediction uncertainty.