Collector development for solar parabolic trough power plants

Collector development for solar parabolic trough power plants In the last years several solar thermal power plants were constructed and successfully put into operation in Spain and North Africa. By the end of 2013, a total of 2,5 GW solar thermal power plants will be in operation in Spain alone. Most of these plants are parabolic trough power plants, which is currently the most highly developed solar thermal technology. These power plants consist of a large solar collector field with hundreds of thousands of m(2) collector areas, which generate the required warmth for the operation of a conventional power block. The costs of this technology are primarily determined by the costs of the collector field. In order to achieve electricity generation costs that are competitive to fossil power plants, further developments of the solar components with regard to cost reduction and increased efficiency are necessary, especially for the solar collector.