A research team led by Roland Winston of the University of California, Merced (UC Merced), has devised a system that collects and concentrates sunlight onto its uniquely designed collector tubes. Using current technologies, the heat produced can be utilized for heating, cooling and other applications.
Solar Thermal Collectors" />UC Merced Professor Roland Winston, left, and a team of student researchers designed and developed a system of non-tracking solar thermal collectors. Credit: UC Merced
The collector tubes utilized are static, thus eliminating the need of an additional equipment, which is expensive to install and difficult to maintain. The UC Merced’s system, dubbed as External Compound Parabolic Concentrator (XCPC), produces 60% of solar thermal efficiency at temperatures to a maximum of 400° F. The system can be used in a hazy environment and collects both indirect and direct sunlight.
To demonstrate the efficacy and performance of the novel system, Winston’s team deployed a mobile office trailer at its facility at Castle in Atwater. The trailer is cooled through an air conditioning, which is powered by a series of 160 XCPCs placed in two parallel rows. A superior performance double-effect absorption unit, which needs more amount of heat energy to produce cooling, is the basis of air conditioning.
Winston stated that the XCPC system is an economical method for any application that needs process heat. The system can be deployed easily on walls and rooftops due its non-tracking design, he said. The University of California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute (UC Solar), a multi-campus research institute based at UC Merced, is the sponsor of the research.