How do Parabolic Solar Concentrators compare to Solar Trough technology?

How do Parabolic Solar Concentrators compare to Solar Trough technology

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While solar trough systems are the primary choice of industrial solar farms, such as those currently under development throughout the western United States and other countries, this form of renewable energy generation cannot compete when compared to the efficiency of parabolic solar concentrators. This is especially true when parabolic solar concentrators are used as a primary energy source for home or business solar hot water production.

Solar trough systems (which are also known as line-focus collectors) consist of rows (or troughs) of collectors which are coated in a highly reflective material. A tube containing oil runs down the center of each trough, and is heated to temperatures in excess of 400 Celsius by the concentrated rays of the sun. The heat from the oil is used to produce steam, which is in turn used to power a turbine-generator or other machinery to produce electricity.

While solar trough systems are undoubtedly highly efficient at what they are designed to do, the sheer number needed to produce electricity can often run into the thousands of units. When these factors are coupled with the large size of each unit and their less than spectacular energy efficiency, it makes the use of solar trough systems as an effective home or industrial alternative-energy-source for solar hot water production extremely limited - especially when compared against the more efficient parabolic concentrator, like the SolarBeam

Parabolic dish solar concentrators are the most powerful type of solar collector available today and are perfectly suited to home and business solar hot water generation due to their comparatively small size and high efficiency as an energy collector. The advantage to the unit's smaller size and footprint is that it can usually be placed in areas with limited space (such as rooftops and back gardens), making it a far more versatile system than the far larger solar trough system.

The parabolic dish system consists of a solar collector (shaped somewhat like a satellite dish or inverted umbrella) which is lined with reflective material which capture the sun's rays concentrating the energy onto an absorber which is set at the focal point of the dish. While other systems suffer from low efficiency due to their inability to track the sun's progress across the sky, parabolic dish systems can maintain a constant supply of solar hot water because they employ a computerized tracking system. This tracking system allows the dish to follow the sun's course throughout the day, ensuring that the parabolic dish is always positioned to collect the maximum amount of energy.

It's this consistency, efficiency and reliability which make parabolic dish systems the perfect choice for solar hot water production.

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