PERFORMANCE COMPARISON ECONOMIC TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE OF PTC (PARABOLIC TROUGH COLLECTOR) AND LFR (LINEAR FRESNEL REFLECTOR) TYPE COLLECTORS FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION THROUGH ORC (ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE) PLANTS
Currently, investments in renewable energy are growing exponentially, due to economic and socio-environmental aspects. Among the renewable sources, solar energy has great relevance, due to its application in the production of electricity, or in the generation of heat through solar collectors. In applications at lower temperatures of around 100 ° C flat collectors may be used due to the low cost. However, for applications with higher temperatures between 150 and 400 ° C, the use of concentrating collectors is required, such as Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) and Linear Fresnel Reflector. (LFR). In the generation of electricity, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) stands out, since its use in plants with low and medium temperature heat sources has greater viability than the conventional Rankine cycle. Therefore, this work aims to compare the performance from the energy point of view of PTC and LFR collectors, aiming the generation of electricity through ORC plants, in order to estimate the best operation and application of each collector. It can be observed that the PTC collector has higher efficiency than the LFR collector due to its optical properties, but economic analysis is the next step to be performed to determine if the utilization of the LFR collector is viable.