The cost of solar tower power plants is dominated by the heliostat field making up roughly 50% of investment costs. Classical heliostat design is dominated by mirrors brought into position by steel structures and drives that guarantee high accuracies under wind loads and thermal stress situations. A large fraction of costs is caused by the stiffness requirements of the steel structure, typically resulting in ∼20 kg/m2 steel per mirror area. The typical cost figure of heliostats is currently in the area of 150 €/m2 caused by the increasing price of the necessary raw materials. An interesting option to reduce costs lies in a heliostat design where all moving parts are protected from wind loads. In this way, drives and mechanical layout may be kept less robust thereby reducing material input and costs. In order to keep the heliostat at an appropriate size, small mirrors (around 10 cm × 10 cm) have to be used which are placed in a box with transparent cover. Innovative drive systems are developed in order to obtain a cost-effective design. A 0.5 m × 0.5 m demonstration unit will be constructed. Tests of the unit are carried out with a high-precision artificial sun unit that imitates the sun’s path with an accuracy of less than 0.5 mrad and creates a beam of parallel light with divergence less than 4 mrad.
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ASME 2008 2nd International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the Heat Transfer, Fluids Engineering, and 3rd Energy Nanotechnology Conferences
August 10–14, 2008
Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Advanced Energy Systems Division and Solar Energy Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4320-8
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Solar Concentrating Systems Using Small Mirror Arrays
Joachim Goettsche,
Joachim Goettsche
Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany
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Bernhard Hoffschmidt,
Bernhard Hoffschmidt
Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany
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Stefan Schmitz,
Stefan Schmitz
Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany
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Markus Sauerborn,
Markus Sauerborn
Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany
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Reiner Buck,
Reiner Buck
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stuttgart, Germany
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Edgar Teufel,
Edgar Teufel
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stuttgart, Germany
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Kathrin Badstu¨bner,
Kathrin Badstu¨bner
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, Bavaria, Germany
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David Ifland,
David Ifland
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, Bavaria, Germany
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Christian Rebholz
Christian Rebholz
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, Bayern, Germany
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Joachim Goettsche
Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany
Bernhard Hoffschmidt
Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany
Stefan Schmitz
Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany
Markus Sauerborn
Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany
Reiner Buck
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stuttgart, Germany
Edgar Teufel
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stuttgart, Germany
Kathrin Badstu¨bner
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, Bavaria, Germany
David Ifland
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, Bavaria, Germany
Christian Rebholz
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, Bayern, Germany
Paper No:
ES2008-54347, pp. 535-539; 5 pages
Published Online:
June 22, 2009
Citation
Goettsche, J, Hoffschmidt, B, Schmitz, S, Sauerborn, M, Buck, R, Teufel, E, Badstu¨bner, K, Ifland, D, & Rebholz, C. "Solar Concentrating Systems Using Small Mirror Arrays." Proceedings of the ASME 2008 2nd International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the Heat Transfer, Fluids Engineering, and 3rd Energy Nanotechnology Conferences. ASME 2008 2nd International Conference on Energy Sustainability, Volume 2. Jacksonville, Florida, USA. August 10–14, 2008. pp. 535-539. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ES2008-54347
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