The failure or degradation of solar absorber tubes is the single largest cost factor for current parabolic trough solar power plant. The main failure reason is that there are residual stresses in the glass-to-metal joint which are generated during the cooling process of sealing. According to the...

Test methods for estimating the thermal performance of the molten salt receiver are a matter of ongoing concern. To date, test methods in the literature require receiver to be operated in steady state or quasi-steady state. However, the receiver is always operating in the unsteady state with...

The tracking and ray tracing equations for the target-aligned heliostat for solar tower power plants have been derived in this paper. Based on the equations, a new module for analysis of the target-aligned heliostat with an asymmetric surface has been developed and incorporated in the code HFLD....

A new method for the design of the heliostat field layout for solar tower power plant is proposed. In the new method, the heliostat boundary is constrained by the receiver geometrical aperture and the efficiency factor which is the product of the annual cosine efficiency and the annual...

The allowable flux density on a solar central receiver is a significant receiver parameter and is related to the receiver life span and economics. The allowable flux density has gradually increased as receiver technologies have developed and is related to various factors, such as the material...

The design of a global steady-state thermal model of a 100kWt molten salt cavity receiver was developed as part of the key project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of People's Republic of China (MOST). In the design process, the following factors were analyzed: receiver area, heat loss...

A comprehensive transient, two-dimensional, two-phase model for heat transfer and fluid dynamics within a packed-bed molten salt thermocline thermal storage system has been developed in our prior paper. In the present paper, based on the developed model, the effects of various parameters, such...

The main handicap of the concentrating solar power technology is still the higher cost compared with the conventional coal power plant. Heliostat arrays cause about 40% of the costs of central receiver power plants. The cost reduction of heliostats is of crucial importance to central receiver...

DAHAN, the pioneer 1MWe CRS (central receiver system) funded by Ministry of Sciences and Technology (MOST), which can be regarded as the milestone in solar thermal power development in China, is now under construction at the foot of The Great Wall nearby Beijing. The major objective of the...

The receiver thermal performance directly affects the efficiency, reliability and safety of the entire solar tower power system. A model combining radiation, convection and conduction heat transfer modes was developed to model a 1 MW molten salt cavity receiver with determined basic design...