High performance computing for the heliostat field layout evaluation

Cruz, Nicolás C.; Redondo, Juana López; Berenguel, Manuel; Álvarez, José Domingo; Becerra-Terón, Antonio; Ortigosa, Pilar M.

doi:10.1007/s11227-016-1698-7

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The position can be characterized by the altitude (α) and azimuth angle (γ s ). Figure 1 shows the angles defining the apparent position of the sun [12,31]. Sustainability 2017, 9, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 22 carried out in order to arrive at the optimally cost-effective system configuration for the multi-tower setup.…”

Section: Solar Insolation Time and Anglesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The position can be characterized by the altitude (α) and azimuth angle (γs). Figure 1 shows the angles defining the apparent position of the sun [12,31], where is the zenith angle and Sx, Sy, and Sz denote the vector components of the sun's radiation. The solar altitude is given by Equation 1 [31]: Where θ z is the zenith angle and S x , S y , and S z denote the vector components → S of the sun's radiation.…”

Section: Solar Insolation Time and Anglesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The overall value for the field is then calculated by averaging each particular result. The optical field efficiency is expressed by Equation (5) [8,12,35];…”

Section: Optical Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is defined as the cosine of the angle formed by the incident solar beam radiation and the vector normal to the reflective heliostat surface [37]. The efficiency factor depends on both the position of the sun and of the heliostat [12]. Figure 2 shows the effect of cosine on reflected rays from the heliostat.…”

Section: Cosine Efficiency Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In power tower systems, the heliostat field is one of the essential subsystems. This is due to its significant contribution to the plant's total investment cost: about 40%-50% of the plant's cost is attributed to the heliostat field [8][9][10][11][12]. The field contributes equally to the plant's overall power losses of about 40% [8,[13][14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical Simulation and Design of Multi-Tower Concentrated Solar Power Fields

2020

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In power tower systems, the heliostat field is one of the essential subsystems in the plant due to its significant contribution to the plant's overall power losses and total plant investment cost. The design and optimization of the heliostat field is hence an active area of research, with new field improvement processes and configurations being actively investigated. In this paper, a different configuration of a multi-tower field is explored. This involves adding an auxiliary tower to the field of a conventional power tower Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system. The choice of the position of the auxiliary tower was based on the region in the field which has the least effective reflecting heliostats. The multi-tower configuration was initially applied to a 50 MWth conventional field in the case study region of Nigeria. The results from an optimized field show a marked increase in the annual thermal energy output and mean annual efficiency of the field. The biggest improvement in the optical efficiency loss factors be seen from the cosine, which records an improvement of 6.63%. Due to the size of the field, a minimal increment of 3020 MWht in the Levelized Cost of Heat (LCOH) was, however, recorded. In much larger fields, though, a higher number of weaker heliostats were witnessed in the field. The auxiliary tower in the field provides an alternate aim point for the weaker heliostat, thereby considerably cutting down on some optical losses, which in turn gives rise to higher energy output. At 400 MWth, the multi-tower field configuration provides a lower LCOH than the single conventional power tower field.

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Section: Solar Insolation Time and Anglesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Solar Insolation Time and Anglesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The overall value for the field is then calculated by averaging each particular result. The optical field efficiency is expressed by Equation (5) [8,12,35];…”

Section: Optical Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cosine Efficiency Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical Simulation and Design of Multi-Tower Concentrated Solar Power Fields

2020

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An optimization tool to design the field of a solar power tower plant allowing heliostats of different sizes

Carrizosa

Domínguez-Bravo

Fernández-Cara

et al. 2017

Int. J. Energy Res.

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The design of a Solar Power Tower plant involves the optimization of the heliostat field layout. Fields are usually designed to have all heliostats of identical size. Although the use of a single heliostat size has been questioned in the literature, there are no tools to design fields with heliostats of several sizes at the same time.In this paper, the problem of optimizing the heliostat field layout of a system with heliostats of different sizes is addressed. We present an optimization tool to design solar plants allowing two heliostat sizes. The methodology is illustrated with a particular example considering different heliostat costs.

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