Investigation of solar thermal power technology

The increasing cost of fossil fuel and crisis of energy has led the world in a quest for exploiting the free and naturally available energy from the sun to produce electric power. This paper summarizes the development situation of the solar thermal electric technology with description and comparison for three prevalent power generation methods: parabolic trough, parabolic dish-engine, and solar power. A 10 kW parabolic trough design scheme is proposed for potential development practically.