Solar Power Concentrating Trough

The Alcoa Company has designed a concentrating solar power parabolic trough and has installed it at NREL’s test facility in Golden, Co.  The Alcoa Company is a leading producer of aluminum.  A series of tests will be conducted there to measure the 20-foot by 46-foot collector’s efficiency to generate energy.  “The NREL is looking forward to performing outdoor efficiency tests on the innovative new parabolic trough collector developed by Alcoa,” said Dr. Chuck Kutcher, Manager, NREL Thermal Systems Group.  “We are excited to see a major U.S. based manufacturer entering the Concentrating Solar Power market through the financial support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Funding Opportunity Announcement Program.”

According to the Alcoa company website, the new Alcoa solution uses highly reflective aluminum mirrors instead of glass mirrors.  The aluminum designed mirrors are more durable and environmentally friendly than glass.  The Alcoa design solution enables, “high volume manufacturing techniques to lower installation costs, plus its monolithic structure enables a simple ‘drop- in-place’ collector for easy installation.  The project is being partially funded by a US$2.1 million DOE grant.”