Xiudong Wei

Modeling and simulation of 1 MWe solar tower plant’s solar flux distribution on the central cavity receiver

Abstract The solar flux distribution rule inside a central cavity receiver is of great significance to the safe operation of solar tower power plants. In this paper, a heliostat field model was fully developed to simulate the solar flux distribution on the inner surfaces of a cavity receiver of a solar tower power plant by means of the Monte-Carlo ray-tracing method. In addition, the mathematical modeling process that starts from the incident solar rays to the absorbed energy by the inner surfaces of the cavity receiver was presented in detail. According to the final layout of the heliostat field, a dynamic simulation of the solar flux inside the cavity receiver during the vernal equinox was performed. The results indicated that the incident energy reflected by the heliostat field was mainly distributed on the rear and lateral surfaces throughout the day. Moreover, at different time points, the solar flux distribution rule inside the cavity receiver was also analyzed in detail. In order to verify the validity of this model, the simulation results were taken to compare with the experimental data of a random heliostat. Furthermore, to further testify the accuracy of our model, the simulation results obtained by inputting the coordinates of the CESA-I’s heliostat field into our model were also taken to compare with the published experiment data. Ultimately, both of the comparative results show that they can be good references for the safe design of the whole system.

Optimization procedure for design of heliostat field layout of a 1MWe solar tower thermal power plant

A procedure for designing and optimizing heliostat field layout of solar tower thermal power plant is developed. The ray tracing is used for the calculation of the optical efficiency of field. The mathematical theory of the calculation is derived. The parametric search algorithm, which allows variation of the field parameters within a specified range, is used for the optimization of field. The field layout is made automatically according to the no-blocking loss condition and the heliostats are located at the positions where the annual incident cosine value is higher. In this way, the blocking and cosine losses are lowered. Because the optimization of the distance between fore-and-aft two rows of heliostat is avoided, the computer time is reduced effectively. Using this procedure the heliostat field of a 1MWe solar tower power plant was designed. Four modes of layout including North-South cornfield, North-South stagger, Radial cornfield and Radial stagger were experimented and optimized respectively. The comparison of the field efficiency for the four optimized results was made. It is concluded that the North-South cornfield layout is the optimal decision for the 1MWe solar tower power plant.

The Design of a 1mw Solar Thermal Tower Plant in Beijing, China

DAHAN solar plant and the testing platform of China solar thermal power technology would be has been constructed on the lands of the Yanqing District, Beijng, (Longitude 115°44′ to 116°34′ Latitude 40°16′ to 40°47′), 74 km north-west from the city of Beijng. It consists of 10,000m2 collector field, 100m tower, 8MW thermal power receiver, 1MW steam turbine, and the storage system capacity allows 1 hour full load operation. The main purpose of the tower plant is for the experiment. So more flexible function is asked for the plant system. The purpose of the work is to study the technologies liking system layout design method and performance simulation. The geographer between each heliostat is related to the optical performance and the ratio of shaded ground, considering the plant grow during early of March to end of September yearly. DAHAN includes a 8MW thermal power superheating steam receiver, synthetic oil for high temperature thermal storage and saturated steam for lower temperature storage.

Theoretical Simulation Investigation of the Pioneer 1 Mw Solar Power Tower System In China

Preliminary results in predicting performance of the first 1 MW solar power tower system in China named “DAHAN” locating in north-west of Beijing nearby The Great Wall are presented in this paper. DAHAN consists of collector system (CS), receiver system (RS), thermal storage system (TSS), steam generation system (SGS), electrical power generation system (EPGS) and the balance of plant (BOP).

Design of Heliostats Field for the Scale of 1MW Solar Power Tower Plant

The development in basic technology and market strategy of solar thermal power techniques is booming rapidly due to the limited fossil resources and severe environmental problems all over the world. In this paper, the design method of heliostats field for the scale of 1MW solar power tower plant with latitude of 40.4°N at the design point of the noon of spring equinox is introduced, which uses the multiplication of three efficiencies of cosine, atmospheric transmittance and intercept as the preliminary boundary limit to locate heliostats, while the spacing between heliostats is set not only for less shading and blocking, but also for the availability of installation and maintenance of heliostats. Furthermore, its optical performance tested by the software HFLD, is quite good, which has annual average efficiency of 71.36% and design point efficiency of 80%.