Optimization of Optical Efficiency Modeling and Heliostat Field Layout of Tower Solar Thermal Power Station

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study and optimize the layout of heliostat mirror fields in solar photovoltaic power plants to improve energy efficiency. By analyzing the key factors of optical efficiency, the optical efficiency model is constructed. The optical efficiency of a single heliostat mirror is calculated using five efficiency factors, namely, shadow shading efficiency, cosine efficiency, atmospheric transmittance, collector truncation efficiency, and mirror reflectivity. The DELSOL layout is used as the initial mirror field, and the mirror field design is optimized by the particle swarm algorithm. The optimal design parameters of the heliostat mirror field including the position of the absorption tower, the size of the heliostat, and the installation height were calculated by adjusting the positions of the heliostat and the absorption tower many times. The results show that the annual average optical efficiency of the heliostat field is 0.6127, and the annual average thermal power output is 37.4508 MW. Through optimization, the annual average optical efficiency of the heliostat field is increased to 0.75, and the annual average thermal power output reaches 64.98 MW. In addition, the results show that the heliostat field has a seasonal characteristic. The optical efficiency and the annual average thermal power output change monthly.