Energy demands have been increasing worldwide, endangering the future supply–demand energy balance. To provide a sustainable solution for future generations and to comply with the international goal to achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2050, renewable energies have been at the top of the international discussions, actively contributing to the energy transition and climatic policies. To achieve the international goal, Angola proposed a long-term strategy that promotes a fair and sustainable development of the national territory by means of improving the electric sector. Among all the renewable resources, solar energy is found to be the most promising solution since it has the second major renewable energy potential in Angola. However, the main problem related to solar energy is the efficiency of the solar systems and the electrical and thermal energy storage. As part of the solution, Concentration Solar Power (CSP) can make a sounder contribution to the transformation of the Angolan energy sector since it enables a significant increase in energy intensity through the concentration of solar energy. Moreover, the large applicability of this technology can contribute to the development of the rural regions which still struggle for energy equity. By considering the potential of CSP, this work presents the status of the Angolan energy sector, and focus is provided on the solar potential of the country. The advantages of the CSP technologies with emphasis on the parabolic dish systems are presented, and the contribution and innovative solutions for the enhancement of thermal efficiency are presented.
Concentrated solar thermal (CST) technologies have been considered a promising solution to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. However, to make CST systems attractive to the international energy sector, their efficiency must be enhanced and low-cost manufacturing processes should be used. In this context, an innovative solar receiver for parabolic-dish solar concentrators is developed in this work, focusing on the improvement of the absorption capacity and heat transfer to the thermal fluid. To enhance solar radiation absorption, a pyramid-shaped texture surface is constructed. In addition, the multiple jet impingement process combined with porous media is applied to ensure high heat transfer rates to the thermal fluid. To evaluate the system efficiency, an experimental setup is developed using a parabolic reflector with a solar tracking system and the flow dynamics of multiple jets impinging on the porous surface is analyzed using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The results show that the tested absorber surface increases the solar absorption efficiency by 6.5 %, compared to the smooth surface. Furthermore, the jet’s flow dynamics and heat transfer analysis shows that the porous surface combined with the air jets increases the heat transfer rate, obtaining optimal values for jets velocities ranging between 5 and 10 ms−1.
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