Cosine Efficiency Distribution with Reduced Tower Shadowing Effect in Rotating Heliostat Field

Abstract

Of all concentrating solar power technologies available today; the solar tower power plant is placed in the foreground and may become the preferred technology. In the present work, an algorithm, which gives us the cosine efficiency distribution of preliminary design of rotating heliostat field of solar tower power plant in the northern hemisphere, is presented. A regular radial staggered configuration is used. The variable radial distance between consecutives rows is computed considering the blocking factor constant for the entire solar field. A comparative performance analysis is developed between the existing PS 10 solar power plant in Spain, and the reconfigured one using the technology of rotating solar field concept. The study includes the cosine efficiency and the tower shadowing effect. The reconfigured model of PS10 is believed to be more promising than of the original one, in case it is adapted to suit the same technology.