ME 5680 — Applications of Concentrating Solar Thermal Technologies
4 semester hoursGraduateLecturetypical days: TBostonOnlineOnlineTraditional
Focuses on the analysis of concentrating solar thermal technologies at the design and system levels. Discusses simulation techniques to calculate the performance of concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies, including comparisons to other solar systems in terms of efficiency and cost. Includes topics involving solar systems designs of heliostats, concentrating dishes, and troughs. Presents geometric optics and convolution techniques and integrates them with incident solar predictions to calculate the performance of CSP systems. Covers the control and tracking systems required to maximize performance; the thermal effects that occur at the high solar energy fluxes and high temperatures in CSP systems; and the potential advantages in energy generation, energy storage, and biogas manufacturing and means to predict them.
Prerequisites
- one of:
- ME 4570 (min C)
- graduate program admission
Offering history
| Term | Sections | Enrolled | Capacity | Full | Open seats/section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2025 | 2 | 6 | 38 | 16% | 16.0 |
Snapshots from scheduled scrapes — not live seat availability. "Full" can exceed 100% when sections over-enroll.
Meeting times
Share of recent sections by weekday: M 0% · T 67% · W 0% · Th 0% · F 0%
Common patterns: T (67% of sections), async (33% of sections) — in patterns, R means Thursday
Professors
Spring
- Ahmet Coskun (100% of students) · reviews
Percentages are each professor's average share of the season's enrolled students in recent terms.
Links
Official catalog (ME course descriptions) · All ME courses · Plan it at numap.app