Design of a Concentrated Solar Power System Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Concentrated solar power (CSP) is an alternative approach to harnessing the sun's power to generate renewable energy. As the requirement for the generation of energy grows, the demand for concentrated solar power also increases. Recently, efforts in using CSP technology to generate renewable energy have been adopted globally, with a 6.45 GW capacity installed. With plans of the Philippines to further strengthen the country's energy production and enhance the production of renewable energy in Mindanao, this study proposes to design a CSP specifically for Davao City using a computational fluid dynamics approach. The parabolic dish and a receiver can accommodate a concentrator dish of 10 meters in aperture diameter for installation in Davao City. The design scale-up of the concentrator is then assessed with its efficiency using ANSYS Fluent. In addition, SolTrace and the fluent discrete ordinates radiation model can predict the potential thermal energy extracted from solar radiation. The results show the heat flux pattern in the CSP receiver entrance.