Optical Analysis of a Novel Linked Heliostat Tracking System for Distributed-Scale Concentrated Solar Power

In this work, a novel concentrating solar power system consisting of a small heliostat field utilizing simplified two-axis tracking is proposed for distributed-scale solar thermal power generation. Monte Carlo ray tracing is used to characterize the optical performance of the system and to parametrically evaluate its design. Radiative flux distributions are obtained in the receiver plane for solar irradiation at an example location of Albuquerque, NM, and date of June 21. The system delivers an 8-hour daily average optical efficiency of 64.4%, flux concentration ratio of 122.8 suns, and daily average thermal power of 47.3 kW_t for a receiver of 0.35 m radius. The peak optical efficiency at solar noon was found to be 97.9% with a concentration ratio of 201.3 and thermal power of 77.5 kW_t for the base simulation parameters.