APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY FIXED TARGET SOLAR THERMAL CONCENTRATOR POWER PLANTS

摘要

A fixed target solar thermal tower design is provided that utilizes a low number of collector modules (32, 172, 191), e.g. 5 to 30, mounted on solar-tracking mechanisms. The collector modules may be rotatable so as to reflect incident sunlight onto a target receiver (1200, 192) mounted on a tower (31, 171), and substantially all of the collector modules for a given tower may be located in a rectangular area that extends polewards from the tower by a distance of approximately three times the height h of the target receiver and that is approximately h wide. Each collector module may have a plurality of reflectors (42, 43, 194, 201, 202, 203) that are angled so as to reflect incident light generally towards a common point on the target receiver. Multiple such solar thermal tower plants may be collocated and ganged together to provide higher overall power output.

主权项

1. A solar power system comprising:
a solar power plant including:
a receiver module, the receiver module having a target face configured to collect solar energy that is incident on the target face, the target face having a target face center;a group of collector modules, each collector module in the group of collector modules configured to redirect sunlight onto the target face of the receiver module, wherein:
at least 90% of the collector modules are located in a rectangular region that is no more than 10h long in a direction generally aligned with the Earth's longitudinal direction and no more than h wide in a direction generally aligned with the Earth's latitudinal direction, andan average midplane is substantially defined by rotational axes of all of the collector modules in the group of collector modules; anda tower, the tower supporting the receiver module a distance h above the average midplane.