Session: 05-11 Heliostat Consortium 1

Paper Number: 117150

117150 - Status Update on Metrology and Standard in the Heliostat Consortium (Heliocon) 

Appropriate measurement techniques and industry standards are fundamental for product design, prototyping, engineering, and improvement. HelioCon first identified gaps in metrology and standards to advance heliostat technology into next generation.

Gaps in metrology: Opto-mechanical metrology (mirror slope error, mirror facet canting error, and heliostat tracking error) is complex, error-prone, and requires high optical precision, necessitating rigorous validation of different technologies using the same measurement parameter(s). Current metrology gaps include:

·      Lack of at least two viable metrology techniques for a given measurement parameter (such as heliostat tracking error, available for the global CSP industry)

·      Insufficient or missing validation of any viable metrology technique against a different, trusted metrology technique or ground-truth article.    

Gaps in standards: Gaps in community-wide standards for site characterization and heliostat design, testing, field design, and field acceptance test protocols result in significant barriers for new developers, extended design cycles, lower investor confidence, and more complicated arbitration between project parties. Gaps include:

·      Heliostat terminology

·      Heliostat design guidelines

·      Heliostat solar field design/simulation guidelines

·      Heliostat test guidelines

·      Heliostat solar field acceptance test guidelines

·      Site characterization guidelines (e.g., wind, topography, soiling characteristics).

After the gap identificaiton, HelioCon made plans to address these gaps by continuing development of new metrology tools and round-robin tests of existing/to-be-developed tools. More specifically, one or more globally available third-party evaluation platforms possessing a full spectrum of validated metrology tools would be of critical value in providing an independent performance assessment of pre-commercial heliostat products or newly proposed metrology techniques.

Although the development of standards can be time consuming and require collaborative efforts from the entire international community, a strategic collaboration mechanism can be developed to integrate the whole community to address the gaps in standards. Addressing the gaps in metrology and standards is necessary to develop next-generation heliostat products and remove potential commercial risks for new project validation and deployment.

Presenting Author: Guangdong Zhu NREL

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Guangdong Zhu has been a senior researcher since 2010 and, lately, the group manager of thermal energy systems, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). At NREL, he has been leading research efforts related to solar collector optical characterization, linear Fresnel technology, and renewable energy hybridization. He is the executive director of the newly formed 5-year heliostat consortium co-led by NREL and Sandia National Labs, partnering with ASTRI. He is the associate editor of the ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering. He has served as technical/general program chair for ASME Energy Sustainability international conference in 2017 - 2020. He won NREL’s President’s award and Outstanding New Partnership Award in 2016. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal/conference papers and given numerous invited presentations at various research institutes. Dr. Zhu obtained his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2006.