temperatures of these collectors would produce high prossure inside the receiver tubes and piping if normal water were used. This high pressure would require stronger joints end piping, and thus reise the price of the collectors. However, as explained in Section 3 of this paper, the use of demineralized water for high temperaturesipressures is currently investigated at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA) and feasibility of direct steam production at 100bar/400°C in the receiver tubes of parabolic trough collectors has been proven. The receiver tube of a typical PTC (see Fig. 2) is composed of an inner stel pipe that is surrounded by a lass pipe to reduce convective heat losses from the hot steel pipe. The stee! pipe is provided with a selective coating, which has a high absortivity (90%) and low emissivity (<30%), thus reducing thermal losses by radiation, Receiver tubes with vacuum between the steel pipe and the glass cover, as well as glass pipes provided with an anti-reflection coating are used to achieve a higher thermal efficiency and better annual performance of the PTC, especially at higher operating temperature Parabolic mirrors used in parabolic-trough collectors have a high specular reflectance (88%) to reflect as much solar radiation as possible, Mirrors commonly used in these solar collectors are made of back-silvered glass mirrors, though minors made of polished aluminum sheets are also available in the market he Fig. 2.4 ypical receiver tube of a PTC ‘A local control unit manages the rotation of the parabolic trough collector. This device tells the drive unit when and in which direction to rotate the collecior in order to track the Sun, A Parabolic-trough solar field is composed of several parallel rows with several collectors connected in series within every row. Flexible hoses or ball-joins are used to connect the receiver tubes of adjacent collectors within the rows, thus allowing the independent rotation of collectors and the longitudinal thermal expansion of the receiver tubes 2. ELECTRICITY GENERATION WITH PARABOLIC-TROUGH COLLECTORS: The large potential market existing for solar systems with parabolie-rough collectors is clearly depicted when considering statistics data. In Spain, industry is the biggest energy consumer (more than 50% of the total energy demand) and 35% of he indusiry demand is in the range of medium temperature (80-300°C), for which parakotic trough collectors are very suitable ‘The industrial sector in USA consumes about 40% of the total energy demand in that country, From this 40%, approximately half of it (about 20% of the total encray consumption) implies thermal industrial processes suitable for solar applicetions with parabolic trough collectors, which are internationally known as IPH (Industrial Process Heat) applications. Besides this large potential market for parabolic-trough systems, there is also an environmental benefit that is more and more taken into consideration by people: contrary 0 fossil fuels, solar energy does not contaminate and it is independent of supply interruptions dus to political or economical reasons (wars, commercial boycott, ete) ‘The temperature range suitable for parabolic trough. collectors and their good solar-to-thermal efficiency up to 400°C make possible the coupling of a parabolic twough solar field 10 a Rankine water/steam power eycle to produce electricity. The simplified scheme of a typical solar thermal power plant using parabolic- troughs coupled to a Rankine eycle is shows in Fig. 3 A parabolic-rough power plant is basically composed of three elements: the solar system, the steam generator and the power conversion system, j =x [sie aes i noteer | QO eee 7! ea Fig. 3. Simplified scheme of a solar power plant with parabolic-trough collectors ‘The solar system is composed of a parabolic-trough solar collocior field and the oil circuit. The solar field © European Space Agency + Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System