Abstract
Concerning solar flux densities during the operation of a concentrated solar power tower plant, their uneven distribution on a central receiver not only leads to abrupt variations of thermal gradient on the receiver surface but also makes it possible for the receiver to break down. Specific to such problems, a “concentrating-receiver” coupling system of a 1 MWe concentrated solar power tower plant in Yanqing was selected as the research object. On this basis, a spliced heliostat model was firstly established in this paper. The model was used to investigate solar flux distribution on the receiver surface. Considering that heliostats in different positions make diverse contributions to receiver surface energy and the incidence cosines of adjacent heliostats are similar to each other, a new grouping method for heliostat fields was subsequently proposed; moreover, focal point selection criteria were designed for the receiver surface according to solar spot sizes. Finally, an optimized dispatch and operation strategy was established based on the genetic algorithm for the heliostat field. Therefore, a standard deviation of solar flux distribution can be minimized. To verify the reliability of the established model and the proposed strategy, a small-scale heliostat field was adopted to check the simulation results by means of experiments. It has been demonstrated that a heliostat field subjected to optimized dispatch makes solar flux densities distribute more uniformly on the receiver surface. Hence, the safe and steady operation of the receiver is guaranteed.
Highlights
Energy is the fundamental economic support in a country and the basis for human survival.With constant social development, environmental pollution and energy crisis become critical factors restricting growth [1]
The results show that the peak solar flux on the receiver surface declined to half of that subjected to central point focusing after an optimization strategy
In order to more intuitively observe the comparative results, the unit in our paper was converted into the same unit of that in reference [12]
Summary
Energy is the fundamental economic support in a country and the basis for human survival.With constant social development, environmental pollution and energy crisis become critical factors restricting growth [1]. Energy is the fundamental economic support in a country and the basis for human survival. More efficient and high-capacity renewable energy technology, concentrated solar power (CSP) technology has been recognized and accepted in an increasing number of countries [2]. It has been predicted by the Resources for the Future (RFF). Organization that CSP plants may provide electricity of 4100 TWh in 2040, which accounts for 10–11% of global gross generation [3]. Up to 2018, the cumulative installed capacity of CSP plants throughout the world reached 5.5 GW, indicating an accelerating increase rate [4]. CSP transforms solar irradiation to heat power during the day and stores the redundant energy in a thermal energy storage (TES) system
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