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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Polarimetry-Enhanced Imaging towards Autonomous Solar Field and Receiver Inspections

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2544265· OSTI ID:2544265

During the typical operation of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant, a large portion of the energy (~45%) can be lost due to various imperfect conditions, such as blocking, shading, mirror soiling, tracking and canting errors, etc. It is necessary to develop efficient and effective field inspection technology to optically survey and characterize a CSP field, which can be used as an input for autonomous control, maintenance scheduling and spot repair whenever necessary to maximize the overall efficiency of the plant. In this project, We aim to apply polarimetric imaging for CSP collector and receiver inspection and develop polarimetric drone cameras (via integrating polarimetric imagers onto drones) for autonomous field inspection in CSP plants.

Research Organization:
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
EE0008999
OSTI ID:
2544265
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English