Study on Outlet Temperature Control of External Receiver for Solar Power Tower

Abstract

Due to the change of direct normal irradiance (DNI) and the change of output power load, the receiver of the solar tower is in an unstable state in the actual operation. In this paper, a 100 MW external cylindric receiver is designed and modelled. The dynamic and comprehensive model is established for the receiver, including the thermal and mechanical equations. The temperature control strategy is applied to the receiver model. The validity of the control strategy is verified by disturbance experiments, including DNI, the inlet temperature of the heat transfer fluid (HTF), and the weather data on a cloudy day. The response characteristics of the receiver are demonstrated. Its thermal lag characteristics and restraining effect on the fluctuating environment are revealed. The dangerous occasion of the receiver during operation are detected, including the overheat of the local panel, and the dissociation point of the molten salt. Both the robustness and the deficiency of the control strategy of the receiver are pointed out. The research results will contribute to the control strategy formulation of the SPT (solar power tower) station.

Development of a High-Flux Solar Simulator for Experimental Testing of High-Temperature Applications

“…The results of the optical simulations showed that the CPC increased the concentration ratio by a factor of 4.1 at an optical efficiency of 85.4%, and reduced spillage loss from 78.9% to 32.1% and the non-uniformity on the target. The above-described systems have been primarily designed to simulate operating conditions (directional, spatial, and spectral distributions of concentrated radiation) of several solar plants, based on troughs [21][22][23][24], dishes [25,26] and towers [27][28][29], or solar furnaces [30,31], but recently they have gained new interest in direct light absorption, because several studies of solar plants based on nanofluids focused their attention on this topic. De Risi et al [32] and Potenza et al [33] studied solar-transparent parabolics through collectors working with gas-based nanofluid, able to directly adsorb solar radiation.…”