MODULE II - Solar energy technology Page 22

MODULE II Solar energy technology Page 22

CPC (Compound Parabolic Concentrator) - "Sydney collector"

A further type of vacuum tube collector is the so called "Sydney collector", also known as CPC (Compound Parabolic Concentrator). The Sydney collector is more or less based on the principle of a thermal can. So, it consists of a vacuum tube, a CPC-mirror and heat pipes for the fore flow and return flow of heat carrying liquids. The CPC-mirror is used to direct the sunbeams in a more concentrated way to the absorber and thus improving the energy yield even more. Diagrams 22 and 23 show the function of a CPC collector again graphically.

Diagram 22: Function of a CPC collector

English translation of technical terms and sentences in diagram 22:

Konzentrierte Sonnenenergie durch Hochleistungsvakuumröhre CPC16	=	Concentrated solar energy through the high performance vacuum tube CPC16
Sonnenstrahlen	=	Sun beams
Äußeres Glasrohr	=	Exterior glass tube
Wärmeträgermedium in Kupferleitung	=	Heat carrying medium/liquid in copper pipe
Aluminium-Profilrohr zur bestmöglichen Energieübertragung	=	Aluminium pipe for the best possible heat transmission
Isolierender Vakuumbereich	=	Insulated vacuum area
Hochselektiv beschichtetes inneres Glasrohr	=	Highly-selectively coated interior glass tube
Hochreflektierender CPC-Spiegel	=	Highly reflecting CPC-mirror
Schnittbild einer Hochleistungsvakuumröhre mit CPC-Spiegel	=	Sectional view of a high performance vacuum tube with CPC-mirror