Engineering and erection of a 300kW high-flux solar simulator

Abstract

German Aerospace Center (DLR) is currently constructing a new high-flux solar simulator synlight which shall be commissioned in late 2016. The new facility will provide three separately operated experimental spaces with expected radiant powers of about 300kW / 240kW / 240kW respectively. synlight was presented to the public for the first time at SolarPACES 2015 [1]. Its engineering and erection is running according to plan. The current presentation reports about the engineering and the ongoing erection of the novel facility, and gives an outlook on its new level of possibilities for solar testing and qualification. * Predicted values. Values in brackets () exceed the current standard and can be realised with additional effort.

Synlight - A new facility for large-scale testing in CSP and solar chemistry

“…The radiant powers were determined on reference planes of 55cm x 55cm which seems to be representative for the scale of the anticipated test specimen. The gained values show a remarkable fit with the previous expectations of 300kW rad and 240kW rad gained from simulations and the module prototype which were published in [3]. The radiant power in the central test chamber exceeds its expectation slightly.…”

“…This enabled a costeffective design, global sourcing, transparent cost control and finally a larger facility than originally planned. Further information on Synlight's design and its realization is available from earlier conference papers [2] and [3].…”

Design, construction and tests of a high flux solar simulator.

“…Figure 2.13. Test chamber of the Synlight HFSS developed in DLR, Jülich (Wieghardt et al, 2017)……………………………………………………………………………………………... 45 Figure 2.14. Schematics of the solar simulator that can be used for high flux research applications and collimated beams applications (Jin et al, 2019)……………………… 46…”

“…Concluded in March 2017, located in Jülich, Germany, developed by the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft (DLR), the Synlight is the biggest high flux solar simulator built so far. Its manufacture particularities and performance are documented in Wieghardt et al (2018Wieghardt et al ( , 2017Wieghardt et al ( , 2016 and the project's website.…”

“…The cooling system and electrical equipment of the facility have been designed in ways of using lamps of 10 kW e xenon arc lamps instead, which is a future improvement. (Wieghardt et al, 2017).…”