There is an opportunity to use novel concentrating solar thermal systems for domestic, commercial and industrial rooftops. The application range is wide with domestic hot water, industrial process heat and solar air conditioning for commercial, industrial and institutional buildings all being potential candidates. Concentrating solar thermal systems offer a promising method for large scale solar energy collection. Although concentrating collectors are generally thought of as large-scale stand-alone systems, there is an opportunity to use novel concentrating solar thermal systems for rooftop applications. The thermal performance of a new low-cost solar thermal micro-concentrating collector (MCT) developed by Chromasun, which uses linear Fresnel reflectors, is designed to operate at temperatures up to 200℃.We found that the MCT collector has relatively small heat loss compared to conventional flat plate and evacuated tube collectors at temperatures above 150℃ and has efficiency about 60% at its design operating temperature of 200℃. The efficiency can be increased by improving the design of current MCT.
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