Development of a Concrete Parabolic Trough Collector

Current parabolic trough collector development mainly aims at cost reduction. Within the project ConSol the goal was to reduce material and production costs by using high-performance concrete for the parabola shell itself and also for part of the tracking system. A high amount of manufacturing at the power plant site (mobile factory) by delivery of the raw materials and semi-finished products is foreseen, adding value to the local content. Within the project a collector prototype consisting of an extraordinary thin concrete shell was realised based on FEM calculations. The shell is moved via a novel sickle-shaped hill with a newly developed drive system. The collector’s shape was measured by photogrammetry and its optical performance deduced. A part of the ConSol project was dedicated to the improvement of a PVD coated mirror multilayer system on electrochemical polished aluminium strip substrate. With these new layer systems the reflective properties could be increased significantly. Finally, the costs of the system was summarised and cost benchmarks with existing collector technology.