Performance evaluation and thermo-economic analysis of a non-evacuated CPC solar thermal hybrid system: an experimental study

Hybridisation, using an alternative heat source besides solar power, as a back-up unit can be a promising solution for the deployment of Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) technology in low-temperature (100–150°C) industrial applications. In this research, a new integration of a non-evacuated CPC collector with a back-up system was studied for performance optimisation where a thermo-economic evaluation was carried out to investigate the viability of the proposed model for industrial deployment. In operational assessment, the effects of different operating modes as the manipulation of oil mass flow rate and controlling temperature and their interaction on collector efficiency and thermal behaviour were analysed. Results revealed that the maximum collector efficiency reaches about 72% suggesting improvements compared to the similar works. The hybrid mode operation was also evaluated as accurate and instantaneous proportionally to the weather changes. In addition, thermo-economic assessments identified the optimum adjustment based on the minimum payback period.