Study on the End Effect Loss of a Linear Fresnel Collector System

Linear Fresnel Collector (LFC) consists of parallel reflector rows on a horizontal plane that reflects the incident solar radiation on to a common focal plane. Receiver positioned at the common focal plane absorbs the reflected solar radiation. As the Sun's position in sky changes throughout the day and year, portion of reflected rays that reach the absorber varies. Fraction of absorber area remains unused due to no radiation falling on it. This phenomenon is of utmost importance in small scale LFCs, where this forms a major proportion of optical losses. Thus, the variation of end-effect loss for different tilt angles and its dependency on time of day and month of year has been studied, plotted and compared.