Compared to the Eurotrough, the very successful first collector generation developed by schlaich bergermann und partner, the size of the new UT collector has more than doubled. The Eurotrough has already been integrated in many multi Megawatt parabolic trough power plants all over the world. With the new UT collector design parabolic trough plant competitiveness is expected to rise by 25 % and will thus contribute significantly to further cost reduction of future parabolic trough power plants.
With the Ultimate Trough®, the industrial partners are focusing on large scale solar thermal power plants in the range of 50 – 250 MWe. Creating additional benefits utilising the “economy of scale” effect, such plants will make solar power plants even more competitive. The very large dimensions enable high structural stiffness of the support structure decreasing deformations under operation loads, while simultaneously improving optical performance.
The goal of the demonstration loop project is the demonstration of the developed fabrication and erection concepts and their respective costs. The collector efficiency is currently measured and confirmed under real life conditions to warrant performance and safety for the design of upcoming solar thermal power plants. First results show that expected performance values may even be exceeded.