Thermal Dish

• Highest collector-area efficiency – dish mirror area fully faces the sun at all times. Solar trough and towers suffer significant losses whenever the sun is low in the sky.
• Highest year-round efficiency due to two-axis tracking
• Compact thermal dish receiver can avoid the high convective/wind losses incurred by the long pipe used in solar trough collectors
• Solar Dish systems are much more effective in higher latitudes, where the sun is lower in the sky
• These advantages combine to deliver more year-round solar output, and higher temperatures, than solar trough or heliostat/tower systems that suffer reduced output outside of summer months
• The SST Solar dish has a collector area of about 54 square meters. During clear sky conditions a single dish can deliver about 40 kW of thermal energy, assuming nominal losses.

Advantages:

• SST Thermal systems as small as one 40 kW dish can provide high temperatures and high efficiency
• Much better suited for medium scale commercial/distributed use than troughs or towers, which typically require very large and capital-intensive projects
• Constructed using common equipment, such as forklift
• Irregular site layouts can be accommodated
• Systems can start small, with dishes added over time
• Thermal loss due to air/wind can be lower compared to long exposed pipes used in trough systems
• Pre-cast foundation, or site-built foundation
• Glass mirrors for efficiency and long life

Thermal Applications:

• Domestic hot water
• Food / Beverage processing
• Pasteurization
• Drying
• Steam Generation
• Water distillation / Membrane Distillation

Temperatures:

Solar Dish high concentration and point-focus receivers can provide heat at any temperature allowed by the thermal fluid selected.

• Pressurized water for low/medium temperatures, thermal oil for higher temperatures up to 350C
• Heat typically transferred to a heat exchanger / storage tank, for use in customer application