Session: 06-01: CSP Optical Systems
Paper Number: 170008
170008 - Design and Layout of a 100-Kw Scale Receiver Test Facility Using an Available Tower
Abstract:
The scale-up of concentrating solar technologies requires adequate on-sun test facilities to support on-sun demonstration of components that approximate plant-scale performance conditions and enable developers and researchers to economically evaluate the potential of new designs and concepts. The limited number of test facilities for central tower receiver technologies at or above the 100-kWth scale presents an impediment to the development of receiver concepts for concentrating solar power
generation and solar reactors. Adaptation of available tower structures for solar receiver testing provides a low-cost pathway
to expand demonstration capabilities of new receiver concepts, to explore solar field control technologies, and, in general, to
accelerate development cycles of concentrating solar technologies. This study examines the possible adaptation of an existing 60-m high tower facility in the Front Range region of Colorado as a 200-kWth scale receiver and heliostat field test facility.
The steel tower studied in this project stands at the Elevate Quantum site in Arvada, Colorado, recently acquired by the Colorado School of Mines. Although currently unused, the tower remains structurally robust to support multi-tonne receiver assemblies at various heights along the tower where there are structural supports for receiver and balance of plant equipment. The tower is adjacent to a plateau for siting a heliostat field with adeqate space for reflecting close to 1 MWth of solar radiation toward a north facing receiver location on the tower. The tower and surrounding site offers an exciting opportunity to establish a concentrating solar test facility for emerging heliostat and receiver technologies. This study uses NREL’s SolarPILOT to examine the viability of the tower, surrounding environs, and weather to offer up to 500 kWth of thermal power over enough days per year to support effective research and development. SolarPILOT generates heliostat layouts to achieve desired solar fluxes on a 1 m × 1 m receiver for varying degrees of flux uniformity for different tower placements. SolarPILOT simulation analyzes the cost-to-power ratio and other performance metrics for each receiver height and heliostat field layout.
Two sizing approaches provide a basis for calculating the heliostat field to achieve a desired mean receiver flux and
uniformity. The smallest layout method generates a field of heliostats with dense packing and an aiming strategy with a focused
thermal flux profile. The spaced layout method produces a field layout with more heliostats and a dispersed aiming strategy. The
smallest layout field has greater optical efficiency than the field from the spaced layout method, but with much lower flux uniformity which may be less ideal for performing receiver demonstration tests. The field for the spaced layout includes more receivers and thus provides more uniform flux to the receiver, but at the expense of increased spillage around the receiver due to the aiming strategy. For both sizing methods, we compare the performance of 3 m X 3 m heliostats and smaller 1 m X 1 m heliostats. Available receiver locations on the top half of the tower offer a suitable range of solar flux capture to test 1 m X 1 m with mean fluxes of 250 kW m−2, from which final location can be selected based on stakeholders’ economic objectives. Future work includes the consideration of additional heliostat and receiver designs and the incorporation of additional testing costs and accessibility requirements
Presenting Author: Sebastian Dogue Colorado School of Mines
Presenting Author Biography: Sebastian Dogue is an B.S. student in Mechanical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. He currently works as an undergraduate research assistant working with Profs. Alexandra Newman and Greg Jackson on CSP system analysis.
Design and Layout of a 100-Kw Scale Receiver Test Facility Using an Available Tower
Paper Type
Technical Presentation Only