Advanced High Temperature Trough Collector Development

Solar Millenium's Flagsol SKAL-ET heliotrough underwent prototype testing in a 1-MW loop at the SEGS plant in Kramer Junction, California.

The Solar Millennium Group and its subsidiary Flagsol, under the CSP R&D FOA, are completing work on an advanced parabolic trough collector that uses molten salt as a heat transfer fluid.

Approach

Solar Millennium has developed a preliminary design of an advanced geometry parabolic trough collector, designated NTPro. This follows the Flagsol SKAL-ET collector that was prototype-tested at the FPLE SEGS V plant at Kramer Junction, California, in 2002. The collector was selected for the Andasol 1 and 2 plants in Spain, the Kuraymat plant in Egypt, and early Solar Millennium commercial projects in the United States. The NTPro design has three primary goals: higher performance, lower cost, and the potential to operate with a molten salt heat transfer fluid (HTF). Solar Millennium and Flagsol intend to:

Complete the final design of selected components of the NTPro collector
Construct and test a prototype NTPro-VP1 (oil HTF) collector loop at the SEGS V plant at Kramer Junction, working with FPLE
Develop design modifications to the NTPro collector to enable operation with molten salt
Modify the prototype NTPro collector loop to accommodate salt HTF
Implement a prototype loop test of the NTPro-MS (molten salt HTF) collector.

Innovation

Solar Millennium is the only awardee in the CSP portfolio currently exploring torque tube collector frames. The design employs counterweights, a large aperture (~6.7m), and fewer drives/foundations. It is being designed to operate with molten salt as the HTF. At the end of this project, Solar Millennium/Flagsol intends to have developed a large-aperture trough with increased efficiency and reduced LCOE for molten salt integration.

Publications, Patents, and Awards

At this time, this project does not have published articles, patents, or awards.

Quarterly Progress Reports

CSP Program Overview

Learn about other DOE competitive awards for concentrating solar power research that are in progress.