Joachim Göttsche

Solar Concentrating Systems Using Small Mirror Arrays

The cost of solar tower power plants is dominated by the heliostat field making up roughly 50% of investment costs. Classical heliostat design is dominated by mirrors brought into position by steel structures and drives that guarantee high accuracies under wind loads and thermal stress situations. A large fraction of costs is caused by the stiffness requirements of the steel structure, typically resulting in ∼20 kg/m 2 steel per mirror area. The typical cost figure of heliostats (figure mentioned by Solucar at Solar Paces Conference, Seville, 2006) is currently in the area of 150 €/m 2 caused by the increasing price of the necessary raw materials. An interesting option to reduce costs lies in a heliostat design where all moving parts are protected from wind loads. In this way, drives and mechanical layout may be kept less robust, thereby reducing material input and costs. In order to keep the heliostat at an appropriate size, small mirrors (around 10 × 10 cm 2 ) have to be used, which are placed in a box with a transparent cover. Innovative drive systems are developed in order to obtain a cost-effective design. A 0.5 ×0.5 m 2 demonstration unit will be constructed. Tests of the unit are carried out with a high-precision artificial sun unit that imitates the suns path with an accuracy of less than 0.5 mrad and creates a beam of parallel light with a divergence of less than 4 mrad.

3.06 – High Concentration Solar Collectors

Solar thermal concentrated power is an emerging technology that provides clean electricity for the growing energy market. To the solar thermal concentrated power plant systems belong the parabolic trough, the Fresnel collector, the solar dish, and the central receiver system. For high-concentration solar collector systems, optical and thermal analysis is essential. There exist a number of measurement techniques and systems for the optical and thermal characterization of the efficiency of solar thermal concentrated systems. For each system, structure, components, and specific characteristics types are described. The chapter presents additionally an outline for the calculation of system performance and operation and maintenance topics. One main focus is set to the models of components and their construction details as well as different types on the market. In the later part of this chapter, different criteria for the choice of technology are analyzed in detail.

Test Facility for Absorber Specimens of Solar Tower Power Plants

The Solar-Institute Jülich (SIJ) has initiated the construction of the first and only German solar tower power plant and is now involved in the accompanying research. The power plant for experimental and demonstration purposes in the town of Jülich started supplying electric energy in the beginning of 2008. The central receiver plant features as central innovation an open volumetric receiver, consisting of porous ceramic elements that simultaneously absorb the concentrated sunlight and transfer the heat to ambient air passing through the pores so that an average temperature of 680°C is reached. The subsequent steam cycle generates up to 1.5 MWe. A main field of research at the SIJ is the optimization of the absorber structures. To analyze the capability of new absorber specimens a special test facility was developed and set up in the laboratory. A high-performance near-infrared radiator offers for single test samples a variable and repeatable beam with a power of up to 320 kW/m² peak. The temperatures achieved on the absorber surface can reach more than 1000°C. To suck ambient air through the open absorber - like on the tower - it is mounted on a special blower system. An overview about the test facility and some recent results will be presented.