Abstract
ABSTRACTConcentrated solar power tower (CSPT) technology coupled with molten salt thermal storage is a very promising approach to harness solar energy as it offers good efficiency along with cheap storage and it can thus meet the fluctuating demand for electricity in a grid. This helps to avoid additional investment in fossil fuel–powered plants used for base load and peaking demand. However, their large-scale adoption is constrained by their relatively high capital cost. One of the most important cost elements in a CSPT plant is the cost of heliostats themselves. Normally heliostats use square-shaped reflector, whereas it is reported that heliostats with reflectors of aspect ratio (width/height ratio) of approximately 2.0 are cheaper due to reduced wind loads on them. Further, simulation of heliostat fields populated with rectangular heliostats of an aspect ratio of 2.0 has shown that such heliostat fields are not only cheaper to build but also optically more efficient. This paper discusses the results of a small experimental setup created to validate the results of these simulations.
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