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

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Dunham ◽  
Rajan Kasetty ◽  
Anoop Mathur ◽  
Wojciech Lipiński
Keyword(s):  
Concentration Ratio ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Solar Irradiation ◽  
Optical Efficiency ◽  
Daily Average ◽  
Flux Concentration ◽  
Solar Noon ◽  
Simulation Parameters

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 kWt 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 kWt for the base simulation parameters.

Optical Analysis of a Heliostat Array With Linked Tracking

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. Dunham ◽  
R. Kasetty ◽  
A. Mathur ◽  
W. Lipiński
Keyword(s):  
Concentration Ratio ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Average Concentration ◽  
Solar Concentrator ◽  
Optical Performance ◽  
Optical Analysis ◽  
Optical Efficiency ◽  
The North ◽  
The Individual ◽  
East West

The optical performance of a novel solar concentrator consisting of a 400 spherical heliostat array and a linked two-axis tracking system is analyzed using the Monte Carlo ray-tracing technique. The optical efficiency and concentration ratio are compared for four different heliostat linkage configurations, including linkages of 1 × 1, 1 × 2, 2 × 2, 4 × 4, and 5 × 5 heliostats for 7-hour operation and the selected months of June and December. The optical performance of the concentrator decreases with the increasing number of heliostats in the individual groups due to increasing optical inaccuracies. In June, the best-performing linked configuration, in which 1 heliostat in the east-west direction and 2 heliostats in the north-south direction are linked, provides a monthly-averaged 7-hour optical efficiency and average concentration ratio of 79% and 511 suns, respectively. In December, the optical efficiency and the average concentration ratio decreases to 61% and 315 suns, respectively.

Design and Analysis of a Low Reflecting Concentrating Photovoltaic System

2012 ◽  
Vol 517 ◽  
pp. 791-796
Author(s):  
Cheng Yao Wang ◽  
Yin Xu ◽  
Yao Ming Zhang ◽  
Yong Ming Hua
Keyword(s):  
Electric Power ◽  
Concentration Ratio ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Mathematic Model ◽  
Photovoltaic System ◽  
Voltage Profile ◽  
Pv System ◽  
Tracking Errors ◽  
Flux Concentration

In this paper, a concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system with low ratio was successfully developed. In the design of CPV concentrator, a quasi-parabolic reflector was adopted. With the research of basic optical mechanisms, a mathematic model was built with the corresponding program. In addition, the width of light spot was analyzed with considering the symmetry of tracking errors and glass deformation in manufacture to identify reasonable values. The system was designed with a reflector of 10 flat mirrors, which has a geometrical concentration ratio of 8.18 and a flux concentration ratio of 5. The concentrating photovoltaic system was investigated experimentally under the various weather conditions. The output voltage profile and the output power of the flat PV system and the CPV system were presented to analyze the concentration ratio and the electric power. And the influence of soiling was also discussed. The results showed that the performance of tracking system was good in a clear day. Compared to the flat cell with the same system, the electric power was nearly increased by 4-5 times.

scholarly journals A review of Thermal Performance of Solar Concentrator – the future needs

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pramod Ram Wadate ◽  
H.M. Dharmadhikari
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Solar Irradiation ◽  
Optical Efficiency ◽  
The Future ◽  
Parabolic Dish ◽  
Current Scenario ◽  
Useful Heat Gain ◽  
Solar Power Tower ◽  
Useful Heat

Abundant solar energy is freely available almost round the year in India. As per the current scenario of global warming and climatic change, solar energy is the cleanest source in nature. Concentrated solar power (CSP)has hardly contributed to the overall installed solar power capacity in the country. CSP technologies are Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC), Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR), Paraboloid Dish and Solar Power Tower. This paper presents a review of CSP in solar parabolic dish concentrator to understand thermal aspect like thermal efficiency, optical efficiency, useful heat gain, heat losses, solar irradiation, etc. for various applications and current development. The current scenario of global CSP is discussed to meet the future challenges and need of the society.

scholarly journals New Deterministic Mathematical Model for Estimating the Useful Energy Output of a Medium-Sized Solar Domestic Hot Water System

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2753
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Zukowski ◽  
Walery Jezierski
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Power ◽  
Optimization Procedure ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Energy Output ◽  
Daily Consumption ◽  
Software Environment ◽  
Optical Efficiency ◽  
Domestic Hot Water

According to the authors of this paper, the mathematical point of view allows us to see what sometimes cannot be seen from the designer’s point of view. The aim of this study was to estimate the influence of the most important parameters (volume of heat storage tanks, daily consumption of domestic hot water, optical efficiency, heat loss coefficient, and total area of a solar collector) on the thermal power output of solar domestic hot water (SDHW) system in European climatic conditions. Three deterministic mathematical models of these relationships for Madrid, Budapest, and Helsinki were created. The database for the development of these models was carried out using computer simulations made in the TRNSYS software environment. The SDHW system located at the Bialystok University of Technology (Poland) was the source of the measurement results used to validate the simulation model. The mathematical optimization procedure showed that the maximum annual useful energy output that can be obtained from 1 m2 of gross collector area is 1303 kWh in the case of Madrid, 918.5 kWh for Budapest, and 768 kWh for Helsinki weather conditions.

scholarly journals Profit-Based Unit Commitment for a GENCO Equipped with Compressed Air Energy Storage and Concentrating Solar Power Units

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 576
Author(s):  
Mostafa Nasouri Gilvaei ◽  
Mahmood Hosseini Imani ◽  
Mojtaba Jabbari Ghadi ◽  
Li Li ◽  
Anahita Golrang
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Unit Commitment ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
System Structure ◽  
Compressed Air ◽  
Mixed Integer ◽  
Compressed Air Energy Storage ◽  
Concentrating Solar Power ◽  
Unit Commitment Problem

With the advent of restructuring in the power industry, the conventional unit commitment problem in power systems, involving the minimization of operation costs in a traditional vertically integrated system structure, has been transformed to the profit-based unit commitment (PBUC) approach, whereby generation companies (GENCOs) perform scheduling of the available production units with the aim of profit maximization. Generally, a GENCO solves the PBUC problem for participation in the day-ahead market (DAM) through determining the commitment and scheduling of fossil-fuel-based units to maximize their own profit according to a set of forecasted price and load data. This study presents a methodology to achieve optimal offering curves for a price-taker GENCO owning compressed air energy storage (CAES) and concentrating solar power (CSP) units, in addition to conventional thermal power plants. Various technical and physical constraints regarding the generation units are considered in the provided model. The proposed framework is mathematically described as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem, which is solved by using commercial software packages. Meanwhile, several cases are analyzed to evaluate the impacts of CAES and CSP units on the optimal solution of the PBUC problem. The achieved results demonstrate that incorporating the CAES and CSP units into the self-scheduling problem faced by the GENCO would increase its profitability in the DAM to a great extent.

Comparison of Two Linear Collectors in Solar Thermal Plants: Parabolic Trough vs Fresnel

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Giostri ◽  
M. Binotti ◽  
P. Silva ◽  
E. Macchi ◽  
G. Manzolini
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Heat Transfer Fluid ◽  
Steam Generation ◽  
Parabolic Trough ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Optical Efficiency ◽  
Synthetic Oil ◽  
Yearly Average

Parabolic trough can be considered the state of the art for solar thermal power plants thanks to the almost 30 years experience gained in SEGS and, recently, Nevada Solar One plants in US and Andasol plants in Spain. One of the major issues that limits the wide diffusion of this technology is the high investment cost of the solar field and, particularly, of the solar collector. For this reason, since several years research activity has been trying to develop new solutions with the aim of cost reduction. This work compares commercial Fresnel technology with conventional parabolic trough plant based on synthetic oil as heat transfer fluid at nominal conditions and evaluates yearly average performances. In both technologies, no thermal storage system is considered. In addition, for Fresnel, a Direct Steam Generation (DSG) case is investigated. Performances are calculated by a commercial code, Thermoflex®, with dedicated component to evaluate solar plant. Results will show that, at nominal conditions, Fresnel technology have an optical efficiency of 67% which is lower than 75% of parabolic trough. Calculated net electric efficiency is about 19.25%, while parabolic trough technology achieves 23.6%. In off-design conditions, the gap between Fresnel and parabolic trough increases because the former is significantly affected by high radiation incident angles. The calculated sun-to-electric annual average efficiency for Fresnel plant is 10.2%, consequence of the average optical efficiency of 38.8%, while parabolic trough achieve an overall efficiency of 16%, with an optical one of 52.7%. An additional case with Fresnel collector and synthetic oil outlines differences among investigated cases. Finally, because part of performance difference between PT and Fresnel is simple due to different definitions, additional indexes are introduced in order to make a consistent comparison.

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycles Driven by Solar Thermal Power Tower System

2015 ◽  
Vol 1116 ◽  
pp. 94-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maimoon Atif ◽  
Fahad A. Al-Sulaiman
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Power Systems ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Solar Thermal Power ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage Systems ◽  
Tower System

This chapter starts with a background about concentrating solar power systems and thermal energy storage systems and then a detailed literature review about concentrated solar power systems and supercritical Brayton carbon dioxide cycles. Next, a mathematical model was developed and presented which generates and optimizes a heliostat field effectively. This model was developed to demonstrate the optimization of a heliostat field using differential evolution, which is an evolutionary algorithm. The current model illustrates how to employ the developed model and its advantages. The optimization process calculates the optical performance parameters at every step of the optimization considering all the heliostats; thus yields accurate results as discussed in this chapter. On the other hand, complete mathematical model of supercritical CO2Brayton cycles when integrated with solar thermal power tower system was presented and discussed.

scholarly journals Solar Thermal Power: Appraisal of Solar Power Towers

2018 ◽  
Vol 225 ◽  
pp. 04003
Author(s):  
Hashem Shatnawi ◽  
Chin Wai Lim ◽  
Firas Basim Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Flux ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Tube Material ◽  
Power Cycles ◽  
Solar Thermal Power ◽  
Central Receiver ◽  
Receiver System ◽  
Solar Power Tower

This study delves into several engineering procedures related to solar power tower plants. These installations come with central receiver system technologies and high-temperature power cycles. Besides a summary emphasizing on the fundamental components of a solar power tower, this paper also forwards a description of three receiver designs. Namely, these are the tubular receiver, the volumetric receiver and the direct absorber receiver. A variety of heat transfer mediums were assessed, while a comprehensive explanation was provided on the elements of external solar cylindrical receivers. This explanation covers tube material, molten salt, tube diameter and heat flux.

A comparison research on pollution index between thermal power generation and solar power generation

2015 ◽  
pp. 99-102
Author(s):  
Jiayu Huang ◽  
Xunzhe Wang ◽  
Xinyue Mao ◽  
Liugang Li
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Pollution Index ◽  
Solar Power Generation ◽  
Comparison Research ◽  
Thermal Power Generation

scholarly journals Potential assessment of using dry cooling mode in two different solar thermal power plants.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Taqiy Eddine Boukelia
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
The Other ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Thermal Power Plants ◽  
Cooling Mode ◽  
Levelized Cost Of Electricity ◽  
Solar Thermal Power ◽  
Dry Cooling

Most of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants are usually installed in desert regions where water resource availability is a critical limitation due to the lack of water required for the exploitation of these systems in these regions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the techno-economic competitiveness of deploying both modes of cooling (wet and dry) in two different parabolic trough solar thermal power plants integrated with thermal energy storage and fuel backup system; the first one is using thermic oil, while the other is working using molten salt. The obtained results show that the dry cooling mode can decrease the yields of the two power plants down to 8.7 % and 9.3 % for oil and salt configurations respectively. On the other hand, the levelized cost of electricity can increase by using this cooling option up to 9.3 % for oil plant, and 10.0 % for salt one. However, the main advantage of using dry cooling option is reducing water consumption which has been decreased by more than 94 % for both plants. The application of our methodology to other two sites worldwide, confirms the viability of the obtained results. The importance of this results is to show the effect of working fluids on the cooling system of solar power plants.

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