https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202226607005
Enhancing the solar-to-thermal energy conversion in high vacuum flat plate solar collectors
1 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze Applicate e Sistemi Intelligenti, 80131 Napoli, Italy
2 Deparment of Industrial Engineering, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, 80125 Napoli, Italy
3 Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, 80125 Napoli, Italy
# Present Address: TVP Solar SA, 10 rue du Pré–de–la–Fontaine ZIMEYSA 1242 Satigny (GE), Switzerland
* Corresponding author: roberto.russo@na.isasi.cnr.it
Published online: 13 October 2022
In solar flat plate collectors, the high vacuum insulation suppresses the convective losses increasing the collector efficiency. The solar-to-thermal energy conversion efficiency in such solar thermal collectors is mainly defined by the optical and radiation losses of the selective solar absorber. We present the full process of design, optimization, fabrication, and characterization of multilayer coatings specifically thought for working in high vacuum flat solar thermal collectors at different operating temperatures, from 100 °C to 300 °C. We discuss the relative importance of absorptance and emittance in determining the collector thermal efficiency. The robustness of the performance of the coatings related to the unpreventable errors in layer thickness during the manufacturing stage is also considered through a genetic optimisation algorithm.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
