Year: 1988
Type: report
Abstract: This report is part of the evaluation work carried out at Ecole Centrale on central receiver plants. The THEMIS collector subsystem is evaluated with emphasis given to the energy performance problems. The collector subsystem, the heliostat, and the operation modes are described. The mechanisms which contribute to the energy losses of the collector subsystem are discussed individually. Heliostat availability, reflectivity, geometrical effects (mirror shadowing and blocking, cosine factor, tower shadowing), beam focusing quality, beam pointing, spillage, propagation losses in the atmosphere between the mirrors and the receiver are successively evaluated. The overall collector efficiency is then estimated from two different points of view. The theoretical performance showing the physical limitation of the system, and the actual performance based on real experimental results, are separately discussed. The electricity consumption of the heliostat field is examined for plant parasitics analysis. The maintenance problems and the lessons learned on hardware behavior at the THEMIS site are also discussed. 19 refs., 7 figs.; 24 tabs.
DOI: 10.2172/5492650
Institutions: École Centrale Paris, Sandia National Laboratories
Language: English
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W75422356