SolTrace: A Ray-Tracing Code for Complex Solar Optical Systems

Technical Report · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1260924· OSTI ID:1260924

Wendelin, Tim ^[1]; Dobos, Aron ^[1]; Lewandowski, Allan ^[2]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
2. Allan Lewandowski Solar Consulting LLC, Evergreen, CO (United States)

SolTrace is an optical simulation tool designed to model optical systems used in concentrating solar power (CSP) applications. The code was first written in early 2003, but has seen significant modifications and changes since its inception, including conversion from a Pascal-based software development platform to C++. SolTrace is unique in that it can model virtually any optical system utilizingthe sun as the source. It has been made available for free and as such is in use worldwide by industry, universities, and research laboratories. The fundamental design of the code is discussed, including enhancements and improvements over the earlier version. Comparisons are made with other optical modeling tools, both non-commercial and commercial in nature. Finally, modeled results are shownfor some typical CSP systems and, in one case, compared to measured optical data.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1260924
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP--5500-59163
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
CSP
SOLTRACE
concentrating solar power (CSP)
optical modeling
ray tracing
solar optics