Abstract This paper deals with the investigation of N identical compound parabolic concentrator evacuated tubular collector included single slope solar desalting unit (N‐CPC‐ETC‐SSU) by incorporating energy metrics for solving contemporary issue of water scarcity in the society. It will contribute to the sustainable development of society and recede the dependency on fossil fuels, too. The energy metrics investigation is important for energy system because it talks about the feasibility of the system. The methodology consists of getting fundamental equations from energy balance equations. All fundamental equations with relevant data are fed to the code developed in MATLAB followed by the computation of overall energy and exergy. All types of climatic situations have been considered for the analysis. Data required for the same are accessed from IMD, Pune, India. The energy payback period, energy production factor, and life cycle conversion efficiency for N‐CPC‐ETC‐SSU have been calculated at eight number of collectors, 0.012 mass flow rate and 0.14 m water depth. Results of N‐CPC‐ETC‐SSU have been compared with results of SSU included with ETCs. Concludingly, energy payback period is lower by 6.41%, energy production factor is higher by 6.25% and exergy‐based life cycle conversion efficiency is higher by 96.39% for N‐CPC‐ETC‐SSU than N‐ETC‐SSU.

Comparative energy metrics and annual efficiency analyses of CPC‐ETC integrated single slope solar desalting unit