Design, Fabrication and Experimental Study of Solar Parabolic Dish Concentrator for Remote Area Application

The sustainability of our ecosystem is under threat due to the frequent use of fossil fuel for cooking purpose in the rural communities. Therefore, efforts are being made to replace our existing cooking fuel with renewable energy source. The design fabrication and testing of a solar parabolic dish concentrator for application in remote areas is presented in this paper. The solar concentrator was design and fabricated with low cost available material and skills that can be operate and easily repaired by the users and can be track manually to follow the movement of the sun. The performance test carried out reveals that the concentrator can attain a very high temperature of 180oc for frying oil on a clear sunny day and boiling water of 100oc. The study also reveals that the concentrator can be used for cooking and drying purpose