During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored a series of commercial-scale solar energy application experiments. Numerous different solar technologies were designed, developed, and deployed at various locations within the U.So The DFW Airport Photovoltaic & Thermal (PVT) System was the only DOE-funded experiment to use linear Fresnel lens solar concentrator technology. The DFW Airport system is a total energy system, producing both electricity and heat. The Fresnel lens concentrators focus sunlight onto silicon photovoltaic cells for electricity production. Cell cooling and heat collection are simultaneously accomplished by circulating glycol/water solution in a fin/tube heat sink behind the photovoltaic cells. This system was designed in 1978, qualification hardware was developed and tested by 1980, and the system was fabricated and deployed by 1982. For the past five years, the system has operated reliably and efficiently. Measured performance has closely matched predicted performance. The multi-year solar-to-.output energy efficiency levels of the DFW PVT system have been 7% electrical, 39% thermal, 46% total, where each of these efficiency values is based on the total amount of direct solar radiation reaching the collector field during the five-year period.

Units: Dual