Thermal Model of the EuroDish Solar Stirling Engine

Abstract

One parabolic dish—Stirling engine system—has been in operation at the Engineering School of Seville since March 2004. The unit, based on the Eurodish system, is one of the several Country Reference Units of the EnviroDish project. The system has achieved a maximum thermal efficiency (solar to electricity) close to 20% during operation. The analysis of the different parameters suggests a high potential for improvement. A thermal model of the main components of the engine package (cavity, receiver, and Stirling engine) can help to evaluate possible modifications of the system and identify the most promising ones. The development of such a thermal model and its comparison with experimental data gathered during this period are reported in this work. Model results exhibit a good qualitative agreement with the available measurements. However, the validation of the model will require measuring more parameters at the cavity, receiver, and engine.