Design considerations and construction of an experimental prototype of concentrating solar power tower system in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

A prototype of a solar power tower system was designed and constructed to produce electricity from solar energy. This prototype of a solar power tower system was constructed and installed at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia where solar intensity is excessive. Heliostats were implemented to capture the solar rays during daylight. These mirrors are used to direct the solar energy to a solar receiver that is made of alloy steel so that thermal energy is conveyed to a thermal fluid inside the receiver. Based on a detailed selection procedure presented in this article, a final number of ten heliostats were chosen to direct the solar energy to the solar receiver. In addition; two motors were used to control the heliostat rotational and elevation movements. The thermal fluid is a molten salt mixture (which consists of 60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3). Cold and hot storage tanks were manufactured from steel and they were insulated with calcium silicate from all sides. A one-meter high and one and a half-meter cylindrical vessel was adopted for each of the cold and hot tanks. In this article, a detailed design analysis of each component is presented. The thermal power transferred to the water in the heat exchanger as it is heated by the molten salt was measured and found to be 11.26kW. The thermal power given by the molten salt in the heat exchanger was also measured and found to be 12.31kW. The design thermal power was 13kW. The percentage error in the thermal power obtained is about 5.3%.