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Abstract The thermal performance of the evacuated tube solar collector with WO 3 /Water Nanofluid was studied in this paper. The WO 3 nanoparticles were spherical with 90 nm diameter Three different volume fraction of WO 3 nanoparticles of 0.014%, 0.028%, and0.042% were examined at several mass flux rates of 0.013 kg/s.m2, 0.015 kg/s.m2 and 0.017 kg/s.m2. The stability of the nanofluid was checked. Experiments were performed in Budapest, Hungary on the latitude of 47°28′N and longitude of 19°03′E. The results showed that the temperature difference of the fluid increased up to 21% with adding WO 3 nanoparticles. The maximum heat gain at the solar irradiance of 900 W/m2 was raised up to 23% when WO 3 nanoparticles were used. The proportion of the growth of the heat removable factor for nanofluids comparing to water at the same mass flux rate is between 1.05 and 1.16. The results indicated that the efficiency of the evacuated tube solar collector enhanced with more nanoparticles added. The thermal-optical efficiency of the evacuated tube solar collector reached 72.8%. Highlights • A good stability WO 3 /water nanofluid was prepared at different volume fraction. • The collector outlet temperature and heat gain enhanced with 21% and 23%, respectively. • The ratio of the increase of the heat removable factor for nanofluids was between 1.05 and 1.16%. • The thermal-optical efficiency of the collector reached 72.83%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]