Session: 18-05 HelioCon Modeling & Training

Paper Number: 142373

142373 - Heliostat Consortium: Updates on Resource, Training, and Education Development for the Concentrating Solar Power Community 

Abstract: 

One of the major barriers to Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) industry growth in the U.S. is the lack of accessibility of expert knowledge, a lack of a stable workforce pipeline, and little public awareness of the technology area. CSP and CST are not widely known technology areas, with limited education and research opportunities in education institutes, and limited resources to support new hires or companies trying to enter the industry. Improved Resource, Training, and Education (RTE) is needed to address these gaps, to draw workers into the field from diverse technology areas and backgrounds, and to reduce the learning curves of newcomers into the industry. Here we will share information on efforts to provide online resources for increase public accessibility to heliostat and CSP industry knowledge. As part of the RTE topic under the NREL-led Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon), a public online resource database has been created to support information sharing across the heliostat and CSP community. This database includes: 1) lists of metrology tools, software tools, and component developers and suppliers relevant to the heliostat industry, 2) a Zotero reference library containing publications, books, and other resources relevant to power tower solar fields, 3) a power tower plant database, including information on existing power tower plants with solar field specifications, power production data, and image galleries, and 4) information on existing standards and guidelines. Also, under the RTE topic, educational resources have been posted online to support onboarding of newcomers to the industry. The website features a high-level report that provides an introduction to heliostat technologies, meant to serve as a reference to educate new employees. The website also includes over 20 recorded videos of a monthly seminar series that features experts within the industry sharing knowledge on heliostat fundamentals or specific topics. Users are encouraged to explore resources at https://heliocon.org/resources/resources-1.html and send feedback to heliostat.consortium.org.

The HelioCon RTE team also works closely with the Women+ in Concentrated Solar power group, supported by SolarPACES, which is an international organization to promote and support underrepresented genders in the Concentrating Solar Thermal community. Over the past year and a half, the W+CS group has 1) recruited over 100 members, 2) provided online webinars and networking opportunities, hosted conference presentations and activities to spread information about the group, recruit new members and build community among underrepresented genders, 3) Created a mentoring program to support career development of early career industry members that has connected nearly 40 mentors and mentees across the globe.

Presenting Author: Rebecca Mitchell National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Rebecca Mitchell (PI) has been a researcher at NREL for five years, where she develops optical metrology tools for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) collectors using algorithm development, theoretical modeling, and laboratory and field testing. She now serves as the team lead on the development on the Non-intrusive Optical (NIO) technology which surveys Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) solar fields using UAS imaging. She has led UAS data collection campaigns of heliostats at Sandia National Labs, Crescent Dunes plant, and Cerro Dominador plant. She has been involved in three publications and a recently issued patent for the NIO technology. Dr. Mitchell has mentored several graduate and Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) interns and now serves as the lead of the Resource, Training, and Education topic for the Heliostat Consortium project. Dr. Mitchell will oversee all aspects of the project and be responsible for all milestones.

Authors:

Rebecca Mitchell National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Guangdong Zhu National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Yu Zhou National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Jeremy Sment Sandia National Laboratories