Climatic potential evaluation for optimal use of parabolic solar collectors: A case study of Iran

Increased demand for fossil fuels has led to climate change, global warming, and declining energy reserves. The use of renewable energy, such as solar energy, is a suitable approach to generating electricity and heat. One of the common systems in using solar energy is parabolic collectors, which enable this clean energy by converting the incoming radiation into thermal energy. In the present paper, to assess the potential of climates to make optimal use of solar parabolic collectors, a numerical model was developed in MATLAB software. Then, while validating the model with existing experimental results, the effect of climate change has been studied in four areas: energy, exergy, economy, and environment. For this purpose, five cities: Rasht, Shiraz, Tehran, Abadan, and Sanandaj, have been selected as representatives of Iran's climate and energy efficiency and exergy, the unit cost of energy, and the amount of carbon dioxide produced during the life cycle of the system has been obtained. The results show that Shiraz, with a  Semi-Arid Cool climate and thermal efficiency of 72% and a unit cost of  0. 035 $/ kWh, is the optimal climate in the fields of energy and economy, and Sanandaj with a Humid Continental climate and exergy efficiency of 17. 7% is the optimal climate in the field of exergy. In the environment, Rasht, with a Humid Subtropical Climate, was introduced as the optimal climate.