Experimental field evaluation of novel concentrator augmented solar collectors for medium temperature applications

This paper looked at the development and experimental characterisation of the solar collector components termed novel “concentrator augmented solar collector array”. The “concentrator augmented solar collector array” being a combination of evacuated tube heat pipes with either an external or internal concentrator having a heat pipe or direct flow absorber as the last tube of the array. The performance of a novel designed and fabricated collector arrays augmented with an internal concentrator with either a heat pipe absorber (EICPC-HPA) or direct flow absorber (EICPC-DFA) and an evacuated tube heat pipe array (ETHPA) to be used for solar driven cooling systems is analysis and compared using a pressurised closed loop water system. Higher collector output temperatures with larger temperature differential, substantial improvement in efficiency and thermal performance produced by the EICPC-HPA collectors implies that higher coefficient of performance (COP) is possible when used to power solar driven cooling systems.