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An experimental tube receiver was constructed, built and brought to operation. This receiver served as a model to try out the so-called scan-method and the measurement of the flux density by reflection off the receiver in real time during irradiation. A comparison with a flux map obtained by a radiometer-based method shows qualitatively similar results. It is concluded that the camera-method is applicable to tube receivers. Experiments at large-scale industrial receivers are planned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power tower or central receiver systems use hundreds to ten thousands of two-axis tracking mirrors, so called heliostats, which reflect and focus the sunlight onto a receiver on top of a tower during the day. As basis for a well performing heliostat field, a single heliostat has to perform "correctly". In order to describe and measure the performance of a single heliostat, the SolarPACES Guideline for Heliostat Performance Testing has been developed by a group of R&D and industry experts during the last years. However, at the end, the performance of the whole field, which means the superposition and interaction of all heliostats determines the energy collected in the aperture of a solar central receiver. For that reason, a second guideline is currently outlined, the SolarPACES Guideline for Heliostat Field Performance Testing. Both guidelines aim to be commonly agreed protocols between R&D centers and industry in the field of heliostat performance testing. Recently, a third guideline activity has been started to improve and unify heliostat wind load design methods. The once finalized guidelines (or their concepts) should be included in international standards (e.g. IEC) and used by national organizations like DKE, AENOR, ASME, ASTM. This paper gives an update of the state of the three guidelines being developed in the SolarPACES task III-heliostat working group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solar receiver coating opto-thermal efficiency has a significant impact on a central receiver system thermal final system efficiency. The development of durable high solar absorptance coatings with simple application process and minimal thermal treatment can directly improve the receiver efficiency, thus reducing the levelized cost of electricity. During the past years, innovative receiver coatings for solar thermal tower plants have been developed on various substrates and tested under isothermal load at different temperature levels. In this paper, eight commercial black coating formulations are sprayed on Haynes 230 metal coupons. Solar absorptance and thermal emittance are monitored before and after isothermal exposure. Mass deviations are also measured to pinpoint any oxidation or coating outgassing. Isothermal testing is performed at 700, 750 and 800 °C in a muffle furnace for 1000 hours. After 1000 hours isothermal exposure, Coterill 750 leads the benchmark in front of Pyromark 2500, while other black coatings degrade optically. Uncoated samples oxidize significantly and appear darker than some aged black coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of forward scattered radiation in the atmosphere, the circumsolar region closely surrounding the solar disk looks very bright. The radiation coming from this region, the circumsolar radiation, is in large part included in direct normal irradiance (DNI) measurements at the usual 2.5° pyrheliometer opening half angle, but only partially intercepted by the receivers of focusing solar collectors. Therefore, circumsolar radiation measurements are recommended to be included in solar resource assessment. Circumsolar radiation can be characterized using the radial angular distribution of the radiance around the center of the sun - the so-called sunshape. Several sunshape measurement methods have been developed recently. Most approaches use cameras or pyrheliometers with different apertures which require daily maintenance. The Rotating Shadowband Irradiometer (RSI) based method discussed here uses a conventional RSI without any hardware modification to enable sunshape measurements without affecting the RSI's fundamental function as a DNI measurement device. Thus, it allows to measure circumsolar radiation without any additional hardware and with significantly lower maintenance requirements. The presented RSI-based sunshape measurement algorithm has been validated with four RSIs and more than two years of data. After a short description of the method to derive the circumsolar contribution, the validation results are shown. Then the required calibration method is discussed, followed by the results from the measurement campaigns at four sites in Spain, India and Morocco. It was found that no individual calibration is required per instrument and the algorithm can be used for automatic data processing so that common RSI stations can measure the sunshape with comparably low extra effort. Furthermore, we explain how to derive sunshapes from the RSI measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heat loss of an evacuated parabolic trough receiver of solar thermal power plants ranges typically between values below 150 and 200 W/m at 350?C. Defects, such as glass breakage by wind events and coating degradation, antireflection coating degradation or hydrogen accumulation in the annulus, decrease the annual electricity production. This study examines the effect of different receiver performance loss scenarios on the energetic and economic output of a modern 150-MWel-parabolic trough plant with 7.5-hours molten-salt storage, located in Ma'an, Jordan over the whole lifetime by modeling it in an extended version of the software greenius. Compared to the reference scenario, a wind event in year 5 (10, 15) causing glass envelope breakage and consequential degradation of the selective coating of 5.6% of the receivers reduces the electricity output by 5.1% (3.8%, 2.5%), the net present value is reduced by 36.5% (23.1%,13.1%). The payback time of receiver replacement is only 0.7 years and hence this measure is recommended. The highest negative impact on performance and net present value of a project has the hydrogen accumulation scenario (50% of field affected) in event year 5 (10,15) reducing net electric output by 10.7% (8.1%, 5.4%) and the net present value by 77.0% (48.7%, 27.6%). Replacement of the receivers or even better an inexpensive repair solution is an energetically and economically sensible solution. The option of investing in premium receivers with Xe-capsule during the construction phase is a viable option if the surplus cost for premium receivers is lower than 10 to 20 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]