Euro Trough Collector Qualification Complete - Performance Test Results from PSA

Kurzfassung

The EUROTROUGH solar concentrating parabolic trough collector has been developed by a consortium from industry and research during the last years. The EU-funded R&D work has been finished successfully and project results are available for project developers. The collector is line-focussing, with glass reflector and metal support structure in industrial design. The weight of the improved framework metal structure has been reduced to 18.5 kg/m2 including drive. The length of the collector has been extended by 50% to 150 m. The thermal tests were performed with the improved UVAC absorber tube. The significant increase in absorber tube properties showed up in the test results. The paper presents characteristics of the EUROTROUGH collector types, specific results obtained from the PSA-prototype in the project, and results of the thermal tests and optical analysis.