Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) dish systems use a parabolic dish to concentrate sunlight, providing heat for a thermodynamic cycle to generate shaft power and ultimately, electricity. Currently, leading contenders use a Stirling cycle engine with a heat absorber surface at about 800°C. The concentrated light passes through an aperture, which controls the thermal losses of the receiver system. Similar systems may use the concentrated light to heat a thermochemical process. The concentrator system, typically steel and glass, provides a source of fuel over the service life of the system, but this source of fuel manifests as a capital cost up front. Therefore, it is imperative that the cost of the reflector assembly is minimized. However, dish systems typically concentrate light to a peak of as much as 13,000 suns, with an average geometric concentration ratio of over 3000 suns. Several recent dish-Stirling systems have incorporated reflector facets with a normally-distributed surface slope error (local distributed waviness) of 0.8 mrad RMS (1-sigma error). As systems move toward commercialization, the cost of these highly accurate facets must be assessed. However, when considering lower-cost options, any decrease in the performance of the facets must be considered in the evaluation of such facets. In this paper, I investigate the impact of randomly-distributed slope errors on the performance, and therefore the value, of a typical dish-Stirling system. There are many potential sources of error in a concentrating system. When considering facet options, the surface waviness, characterized as a normally-distributed slope error, has the greatest impact on the aperture size and therefore the thermal losses. I develop an optical model and a thermal model for the performance of a baseline system. I then analyze the impact on system performance for a range of mirror quality, and evaluate the impact of such performance changes on the economic value of the system. This approach can be used to guide the evaluation of low-cost facets that differ in performance and cost. The methodology and results are applicable to other point- and line-focus thermal systems including dish-Brayton, dish-Thermochemical, tower systems, and troughs.

CFD analysis has been conducted to obtain information on heat losses, velocity and temperature distribution of large molten salt Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems. A two-tank 880 MWh storage system was modeled according to the molten salt TES containment design proposed for the 50 MW el commercial parabolic trough solar thermal power plants in Spain. Heat losses were established using the Finite Element Method (FEM), and used to determine the boundary conditions for the subsequent two- and three-dimensional Computational Fluid Mechanics (CFD) calculations. The investigations reveal that a high heat loss flux occurs at the lower edges of the salt storage tanks (between side wall and bottom plate). Thus the maximum temperature difference can be found at this location, resulting in the onset of local solidification within 3.25 days in the case of the empty cool tank. As a consequence, the detailed design of the lower edge has a large impact on both the overall heat losses and the period until the onset of local solidification.

A method for correcting pyrometric temperature measurements of high temperature objects with unknown emissivity is presented. The method also estimates surface emissivity a the pyrometer wavelengths. It is particularly useful for correcting errors due to reflected light in solar heating applications. The method requires two or more narrow band pyrometers and can be applied to low-cost commercial instruments. The method analyzes the temperature measurements of multiple pyrometers operating at different wavelengths across a range of sample temperatures to solve for the surface emissivities that minimize the differences in temperature measurements. The temperature measurements are corrected using the new emissivities values. Simulated temperature data with both random noise and systematic errors is used to assess the robustness of the analysis method. When applied to temperature data from a solar furnace, it is shown to significantly decrease the difference in the temperature measurements of two single-color pyrometers. This method provides a potential low cost solution for pyrometric temperature measurement of solar-heated objects.

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/m 2 steel per mirror area. The typical cost figure of heliostats is currently in the area of 150 €/m 2 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.