Universal Error Analysis for the Optical Design of Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors

The intercept factor for a concentrating solar energy collector is a function of the geometric design as well as the errors associated with the materials used, the manufacturing process, the method of deployment and the tracking control system. For purposes of analysis these errors can be combined and placed into two groups: random and non-random errors. In this paper three universal error parameters are presented which reduce considerably the number of variables in the design process and make it possible to evaluated the optical performances for parabolic trough solar collectors which represent a wide range of fabrication and deployment sophistication.