RC-T02

How the rail eats light

Cheap mirrors bounce the sun into a slot. The slot is a black box with two pipes of oil. Light becomes heat. Heat leaves through a hose. The mirrors do not move when you swap the box.

Run it live Sheet RC-T02

Linear Fresnel field concentrating onto the receiver rail

Cheap mirrors on the ground bounce sunlight up to a pipe. Nothing expensive lives in the dirt. If a sheet cracks, you swap glass — you do not rebuild the plant.

Inside the metal

Tap a step. This is one 400 mm cartridge. Twenty of them make the eight-meter rail.

Illuminated rail: 8.0 m × 100 mm
Tile envelope: 400 × 180 × 160 mm
Tubes: 2 × DN15
HTF: Dowtherm A class
Film limit: 400 °C
Noon, one pod: ~17 kW_th useful

RC-T02

Engineering sheet

Same three pictures, drawn as a shop sheet. Field, slot, guts.

RC-T

Cartridge bill

Same box, different guts later. Only the parts that must sit in the beam belong in the tile.

Maturity ladder

RC-T

First

Thermal baseline

Selective or black absorber, insulated cavity, heat extraction. Establishes optical and thermal balance with the fewest unknowns.

RC-H

After RC-T

Hybrid CPV + thermal

Cooled PV intercepts useful bands; residual radiation becomes heat. Promoted only if net exergy gain survives cooling parasitics.

RC-P

Advanced

TPV / selective emitter

Thermal cavity drives a wavelength-shaped emitter. TPV cells sit downstream, not inside the tile.

RC-X

Experimental

Photonic / rectenna

Research port. Not a project dependency. The plant survives if this never exists.

Interface rules

Fixed mounting datum and optical target plane
Defined maximum receiver heat flux by generation
Quick-disconnect thermal, electrical, and sensor ports
Independent fault isolation for each tile
Serviceable without disturbing collector geometry
Downstream conversion modules remain physically separate

PR-C10

Temperature classes

Hotter is not automatically better. Increase temperature only when added output quality exceeds added radiative, conductive, and material penalties.

Temperature class map and competition table

Class L

80–150 °C

HTF: Pressurized water / glycol
Storage: Hot water tank
Use: Sanitation, food, district, desal preheat

XP-C01 Phase A lives here. Black coating is fine.

Class M

250–390 °C

HTF: Thermal oil (VP-1 / Dowtherm A class)
Storage: Two-tank oil or oil-to-salt
Use: Industrial process heat, ORC later

First commercial RC-T. Do not jump to salt until G4.

Class H

290–565 °C

HTF: Solar salt
Storage: Two-tank salt
Use: High-grade process + power block

After G4 only. Freeze protection is a real O&M cost.

Class X

>600 °C

HTF: Particles / sodium / air
Storage: Research
Use: TPV emitter experiments

Research port only. Not required for project survival.