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Concentrating Receiver Systems (Solar Power Tower)

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Abbreviations

Absorber:

Device which absorbs concentrated solar radiation and produces heat.

Black body:

Ideal body which would absorb all of the radiation falling upon it.

Blocking, blocking losses:

Power which is lost due to interception of part of reflected sunlight from one heliostat by the backside of another heliostat.

Capacity factor:

Energy produced over a specified time interval.

Central receiver system, concentrating receiver system (CRS):

Solar power plant system in which solar radiation is converted by a heliostat field onto a tower-mounted solar receiver.

Concentration ratio:

Ratio of radiant flux density output to radiant flux density input.

Direct normal irradiation (DNI):

Direct part of energy carried by sun rays on a given area.

Dispatchability, dispatchable:

Ability to dispatch on-demand produced electricity to the grid.

Heat recovery steam generator (HRSG):

A conventional power plant component which produces steam.

Heat transfer fluid (HTF) in a CRS:

Fluid used to absorb heat in the solar central receiver and to transport and to deliver it to another component of a power plant (e.g., Heat recovery steam generator, storage)

Heliostat:

Device consisting of an assembly of mirrors, support structure, drive mechanism, and mounting foundation, which follows continuously the sun in two dimensions and reflects the sun rays to a fixed direction.

Heliostat field:

Sum of all heliostats of a CRS.

Hybrid system:

Any energy system which operates on two or more energy input sources, or which provides more than one form of energy output.

Parasitic power, parasitic losses:

Power required to operate an energy conversion system (e.g., pumps, buildings, blowers, electric devices).

Radiation:

Emission and propagation of electromagnetic energy through space or material.

Receiver efficiency:

Ratio of the thermal output delivered by the receiver HTF to the incident solar radiant flux under reference conditions.

Receiver, solar receiver:

Radiation absorbing system that works like a heat exchanger as it accepts solar radiation and delivers heat to a HTF.

Spillage, spillage losses:

Fraction of concentrated solar radiation which misses the absorber of the solar receiver.

Thermocline:

Zone or layer in a thermal storage volume in which the vertical temperature profile changes rapidly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solar-Institut Jülich (SIJ), FH Aachen, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Heinrich-Mußmann-Str. 5, 52428, Jülich, Germany

    Dr.-Ing. Spiros Alexopoulos & Bernhard Hoffschmidt

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  1. Dr.-Ing. Spiros Alexopoulos
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  2. Bernhard Hoffschmidt
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Correspondence to Spiros Alexopoulos .

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  1. RAMTECH LIMITED, Larkspur, CA, USA

    Robert A. Meyers

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Alexopoulos, S., Hoffschmidt, B. (2012). Concentrating Receiver Systems (Solar Power Tower) . In: Meyers, R.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3_677

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