Abstract This paper presents a review of exergy analysis of solar thermal collectors and processes. It includes not only various types of solar collectors, but also various applications of solar thermal systems. Initially the fundamentals of second law analysis are briefly presented as well as the exergy of solar radiation, which is the input to any solar system. Concentrating and non-concentrating collectors have been analyzed, including parabolic dish and parabolic trough collectors from the first category, and flat-plate collectors, air solar heaters, and evacuated tube collectors from the second category. Hybrid photovoltaic/ thermal collectors have also been examined. Applications and processes include the use of phase change materials either in the collection or storage of thermal energy, drying, heating, multigeneration, trigeneration, solar cooling, solar assisted heat pumps, domestic cogeneration, hydrogen production, hybridization with other renewables, solar ponds, power plants and desalination/distillation. Through literature review on the above subjects it is shown that exergy analysis, which gives a representative performance evaluation, is emphasized as a valuable method to evaluate and compare possible configurations of these systems.

中文翻译：

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太阳能集热器和过程的火用分析

摘要 本文综述了太阳能集热器和过程的火用分析。它不仅包括各种类型的太阳能集热器，还包括太阳能热系统的各种应用。首先简要介绍第二定律分析的基本原理以及太阳辐射的火用，这是任何太阳系的输入。对聚光和非聚光集热器进行了分析，包括第一类的抛物面盘式和槽式集热器，以及第二类的平板集热器、空气太阳能加热器和真空管集热器。还研究了混合光伏/热收集器。应用和过程包括使用相变材料收集或储存热能、干燥、加热、多联产、三联产、太阳能冷却、太阳能辅助热泵、家用热电联产、制氢、与其他可再生能源混合、太阳能池塘、发电厂和海水淡化/蒸馏。通过对上述主题的文献回顾表明，提供具有代表性的性能评估的火用分析被强调为评估和比较这些系统的可能配置的有价值的方法。