Length and orientation of the collector rows had to be adapted to meet the constraints given by existing infrastructure at the site. Performance calculations with different sets of meteorological data for the region confirmed that the highest annual energy yield could be achieved with the collector tracking axis oriented to NNW, perpendicular to the wall of the adjacent production hall [4]. Due to inconsistencies in the radiation data available for that region from different sources, there is still a great uncertainty about the expected annual thermal energy provided by the system, ranging from some 9.300 kWh/a to 19.200 kWh/a. Some 1250 productive operating hours may be expected per year, with major proportion in part load (Figure 4).

Fig, 4: Expected annual load distribution of the solar steam generator