The CNRS-Promes dish∕Stirling system was erected in Jun. 2004 as the last of three country reference units built in the “Envirodish” project. It represents the latest development step of the EuroDish system with many improved components. With a measured peak of 11kW electrical output power, it is also the best performing system so far. The measurement campaign to determine the optical and thermodynamic efficiency of the system is presented. The optical quality of the concentrator and the energy input to the power conversion unit was measured with a classical flux-mapping system using a Lambertian target and a charge coupled device camera system. An efficiency of the concentrator including the intercept losses of 74.4% could be defined for this particular system. For the thermodynamic analysis all the data necessary for a complete energy balance around the Stirling engine were measured or approximated by calculations. For the given ambient conditions during the tests, a Stirling engine efficiency of 39.4% could be measured. The overall efficiency for the conversion of solar to electric energy was 22.5%.

Issue Section:
Research Papers
Keywords:
solar energy concentrators, Stirling engines, thermodynamics, thermoelectric conversion, dish∕Stirling system, EuroDish, performance analysis, optical efficiency, thermodynamic efficiency, flux mapping, energy balance
Topics:
Cavities, Cooling, Energy budget (Physics), Engines, Measurement systems, Solar energy, Stirling engines, Temperature, Flow (Dynamics), Water, Electricity (Physics), Errors, Radiation (Physics), Thermal energy, Reflectance, Approximation
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Copyright © 2008
 by American Society of Mechanical Engineers
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