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Eduardo Zarza

Bio: Eduardo Zarza is an academic researcher from United States Department of Energy. The author has contributed to research in topics: Parabolic trough & Solar energy. The author has an hindex of 26, co-authored 62 publications receiving 3797 citations.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An overview of the parabolic-trough collectors that have been built and marketed during the past century, as well as the prototypes currently under development can be found in this paper.
Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the parabolic-trough collectors that have been built and marketed during the past century, as well as the prototypes currently under development. It also presents a survey of systems which could incorporate this type of concentrating solar system to supply thermal energy up to 400 °C, especially steam power cycles for electricity generation, including examples of each application.

915 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the current state of the art of parabolic trough solar power technology and describe the R&D efforts that are in progress to enhance this technology.
Abstract: Parabolic trough solar technology is the most proven and lowest cost large-scale solar power technology available today, primarily because of the nine large commercial-scale solar power plants that are operating in the California Mojave Desert. These plants, developed by Luz International Limited and referred to as Solar Electric Generating Systems (SEGS), range in size from 14-80 MW and represent 354 MW of installed electric generating capacity. More than 2,000,000 m 2 of parabolic trough collector technology has been operating daily for up to 18 years, and as the year 2001 ended, these plants had accumulated 127 years of operational experience. The Luz collector technology has demonstrated its ability to operate in a commercial power plant environment like no other solar technology in the world. Although no new plants have been built since 1990, significant advancements in collector and plant design have been made possible by the efforts of the SEGS plants operators, the parabolic trough industry, and solar research laboratories around the world. This paper reviews the current state of the art of parabolic trough solar power technology and describes the R&D efforts that are in progress to enhance this technology. The paper also shows how the economics of future parabolic trough solar power plants are expected to improve.

762 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2004-Energy
TL;DR: In this paper, a summary of the main results and conclusions achieved in the DISS (Direct Solar Steam) project is presented, where the feasibility of the DSG process in horizontal parabolic trough collectors has been proven and an important know how has been acquired by the project partners regarding the thermo-hydraulic parameters of the water/steam flow in DSG solar fields.

250 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the main scientific results of the DISS project are presented, which aims at the investigation and demonstration of the Direct Steam Generation (DSG) process in parabolic troughs under real solar conditions.

183 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the conceptual design of the first solar power plant using Direct Steam Generation (DSG) in a parabolic-trough solar field is presented, where the main design objective is to assure high operational flexibility and reliability.

174 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A survey of the various types of solar thermal collectors and applications is presented in this paper, where an analysis of the environmental problems related to the use of conventional sources of energy is presented and the benefits offered by renewable energy systems are outlined.

2,620 citations

01 Jan 2016

1,633 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the current state of the art in computational optimization methods applied to renewable and sustainable energy can be found in this article, which offers a clear vision of the latest research advances in this field.
Abstract: Energy is a vital input for social and economic development. As a result of the generalization of agricultural, industrial and domestic activities the demand for energy has increased remarkably, especially in emergent countries. This has meant rapid grower in the level of greenhouse gas emissions and the increase in fuel prices, which are the main driving forces behind efforts to utilize renewable energy sources more effectively, i.e. energy which comes from natural resources and is also naturally replenished. Despite the obvious advantages of renewable energy, it presents important drawbacks, such as the discontinuity of generation, as most renewable energy resources depend on the climate, which is why their use requires complex design, planning and control optimization methods. Fortunately, the continuous advances in computer hardware and software are allowing researchers to deal with these optimization problems using computational resources, as can be seen in the large number of optimization methods that have been applied to the renewable and sustainable energy field. This paper presents a review of the current state of the art in computational optimization methods applied to renewable and sustainable energy, offering a clear vision of the latest research advances in this field.

1,394 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
10 Mar 2017-Science
TL;DR: A metamaterial composed of a polymer layer embedded with microspheres, backed with a thin layer of silver, which shows a noontime radiative cooling power of 93 watts per square meter under direct sunshine is constructed.
Abstract: Passive radiative cooling draws heat from surfaces and radiates it into space as infrared radiation to which the atmosphere is transparent. However, the energy density mismatch between solar irradiance and the low infrared radiation flux from a near-ambient-temperature surface requires materials that strongly emit thermal energy and barely absorb sunlight. We embedded resonant polar dielectric microspheres randomly in a polymeric matrix, resulting in a metamaterial that is fully transparent to the solar spectrum while having an infrared emissivity greater than 0.93 across the atmospheric window. When backed with a silver coating, the metamaterial shows a noontime radiative cooling power of 93 watts per square meter under direct sunshine. More critically, we demonstrated high-throughput, economical roll-to-roll manufacturing of the metamaterial, which is vital for promoting radiative cooling as a viable energy technology.

1,278 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Tao et al. as discussed by the authors discuss the development of the key components for achieving high-performance evaporation, including solar absorbers and structures, thermal insulators and thermal concentrators.
Abstract: As a ubiquitous solar-thermal energy conversion process, solar-driven evaporation has attracted tremendous research attention owing to its high conversion efficiency of solar energy and transformative industrial potential. In recent years, solar-driven interfacial evaporation by localization of solar-thermal energy conversion to the air/liquid interface has been proposed as a promising alternative to conventional bulk heating-based evaporation, potentially reducing thermal losses and improving energy conversion efficiency. In this Review, we discuss the development of the key components for achieving high-performance evaporation, including solar absorbers, evaporation structures, thermal insulators and thermal concentrators, and discuss how they improve the performance of the solar-driven interfacial evaporation system. We describe the possibilities for applying this efficient solar-driven interfacial evaporation process for energy conversion applications. The exciting opportunities and challenges in both fundamental research and practical implementation of the solar-driven interfacial evaporation process are also discussed. The thermal properties of solar energy can be exploited for many applications, including evaporation. Tao et al. review recent developments in the field of solar-driven interfacial evaporation, which have enabled higher-performance structures by localizing energy conversion to the air/liquid interface.

1,139 citations