Theory of cellwise optimization for solar central receiver systems
Cost effective optimization of the solar central receiver system is primarily concerned with the distribution of heliostats in the collector field, including the boundaries of the field. The cellwise optimization procedure determines the optimum cell usage and heliostat spacing parameters for each cell in the collector field. Spacing parameters determine the heliostat density and neighborhood structure uniformly in each cell. Consequently, the cellwise approach ignores heliostat mismatch at cell boundaries. Ignoring the cell boundary problem permits an easy solution for the optimum in terms of appropriately defined annual average data. Insolation, receiver interception, shading and blocking, cosine effects, and the cost parameters combine to control the optimum. Many trade-offs are represented. Outputs include the receiver flux density distribution for design time, coefficients for an actual layout, the optimum boundary and various performance and cost estimates for the optimum field. It is also possible to optimize receiver size and tower height by a repeated application of the field optimization procedure.
- Research Organization:
- Houston Univ., TX (USA). Energy Lab.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DR00789
- OSTI ID:
- 5734792
- Report Number(s):
- SAND85-8177; ON: DE85012586
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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