SOLABOLIC
SOLABOLIC® started as a research and development project for a new generation of parabolic trough solar collectors, based on a patented technology invented by Dr. Ahmed Adel. The Vienna University of Technology has been a project partner since 2013. The project SOLABOLIC® was selected to receive European and Austrian government grants, through Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws), Wirtschaftsagentur Wien, Climate-KIC and INiTS. The company, Solabolic GmbH, was founded in 2016.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Solar Energy
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
- Year Founded:
- 2016
Welcome
Over 100 years ago, suspension bridges vastly increased the span of bridge technologies, reducing both material consumption and manufacturing costs. The patented SOLABOLIC® parabolic trough will do the same for the concentrated solar power (CSP) industry and achieve system dimensions nearly twice the size of the industry standard parabolic troughs, at higher efficiency and much less costs.
SOLABOLIC® advantages over conventional parabolic troughs are confirmed by the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien).
Motivation
As a consequence of the increasingly visible signs of climate change and the international trend to phase out nuclear power, concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies have experienced a new impetus in recent years, especially parabolic trough technologies. To date, parabolic trough is the most mature and bankable CSP technology for electricity and heat generation, and can be utilized in several applications, including, but not limited to:
- Enhanced oil recovery
- Water desalination
- Process heat
The primary challenges facing the CSP industry are the reduction of manufacturing and installation costs, as well as increasing the local content of CSP components, especially in the emerging markets and developing countries that have high solar resources.
Costs have been reduced over the last decade by increasing system size, i.e. utilizing larger mirror structures in both width and length, as well as by implementing new and innovative designs. However, further improvements in parabolic troughs have proved difficult, as the industry attempts to achieve high optical precision while minimizing both material and cost in the support structure.
The SOLABOLIC® parabolic trough is designed to achieve the following goals:
- Increasing the economic efficiency of CSP (reducing costs & increasing efficiency)
- Overcoming manufacturing, transport and size limits
- Maximizing local content for developing economies