A lightweight heliostat field post-optimizer

Abstract

Maximizing the power that the heliostat field of a solar power tower facility concentrates on its receiver requires solving a difficult optimization problem. The traditional design methods rely on forcing heliostats to follow geometric patterns and on working with discrete sets of positions. Some recent strategies bet for working on a continuous search space with promising results. In any case, it is not easy to know if a field is optimal or not, especially from the perspective of the method used. This work proposes an external and fast post-optimizer that takes as input a heliostat field and tries to improve its performance. It follows a combinatorial strategy, and it is independent of how the input field was generated. Thus, it can be linked to any other method.