Improving the concentrated solar power plant through connecting the modular parabolic solar trough

Abstract

Concentrating solar power (CSP) stands as a promising renewable energy technology with the ability to contribute towards global reduction of carbon emissions. A major obstacle to increased adoption of CSP plants has to do with their high initial investment cost; consequently, there is a powerful desire to find improvements that decrease the initial capital investment for a CSP plant. One such improvement involves connecting modularized parabolic trough segments, each with the same dimensions, decreasing the overall amount of actuators required along with greatly simplifying system control architecture. This thesis is concerned with the extent to which parabolic solar trough modules can be connected together while still being able to operate to desired accuracy under expected load. Accuracy requirements are calculated, along with expected loads resulting in frictional torque on the trough. These expected loads are combined with a model for the effect of connecting multiple trough modules to generate a relationship between number of chained modules and required torsional stiffness. To verify said model, an experimental setup was designed and constructed to simulate loads due to both trough weight and wind loads.