Atmospheric extinction in solar Tower plants - A review

In solar tower plants, radiation losses between the heliostat field and the receiver occur due to atmospheric extinction which varies with site and time. Currently, atmospheric extinction is usually approximated using a few constant standard atmospheric conditions in ray-tracing and plant optimization tools. Some tools allow the input of time dependent extinction data, but such site specific data sets are generally not available for prospective concentrated solar power (CSP) sites. In this paper, the most applied model equations which are implemented in different ray-tracing tools are summarized and compared. Several developed approaches to determine atmospheric extinction are presented. Furthermore, different studies about the effect of atmospheric extinction on the tower plant yield are summarized. It can be concluded that project developers should consider atmospheric extinction and its temporal variation as site specific data sets in power plant optimization, plant yield forecast and plant operation. The effect of atmospheric extinction can account for a reduction of the annual plant yield of up to several percent points and is dependent on the heliostat field size, the operation strategy and the on-site atmospheric conditions. Different approaches to determine atmospheric extinction for solar tower plants at a future CSP site have been developed and validated in the past and can be applied dependent on the prevailing atmospheric conditions. The costs of a power plant can be lowered by reducing the simulation uncertainty since it implies in turn a reduction of risk margins in plant yield forecasts.

[1]  H. Hottel.  A simple model for estimating the transmittance of direct solar radiation through clear atmospheres , 1976 .

[2]  Jesús Fernández-Reche,et al.  Measurement of solar extinction in tower plants with digital cameras , 2016 .

[3]  P. Formenti,et al.  Aerosols attenuating the solar radiation collected by solar tower plants: The horizontal pathway at surface level , 2016 .

[4]  Robert Pitz-Paal,et al.  Modeling beam attenuation in solar tower plants using common DNI measurements , 2016 .

[5]  Manajit Sengupta,et al.  Impact of Aerosols on Atmospheric Attenuation Loss in Central Receiver Systems , 2011 .

[6]  L. L. Vant-Hull,et al.  Atmospheric transmittance model for a solar beam propagating between a heliostat and a receiver , 1984 .

[7]  Manajit Sengupta,et al.  Estimating Atmospheric Attenuation in Central Receiver Systems , 2012 .

[8]  Natalie Hanrieder,et al.  Determination of Atmospheric Extinction for Solar Tower Plants , 2016 .

[9]  J. Cardemil,et al.  Evaluating Solar Radiation Attenuation Models to Assess the Effects of Climate and Geographical Location on the Heliostat Field Efficiency in Brazil , 2014 .

[10]  B L Kistler,et al.  A user's manual for DELSOL3: A computer code for calculating the optical performance and optimal system design for solar thermal central receiver plants , 1986 .

[11]  Gerhard Weinrebe,et al.  Technische, ökologische und ökonomische Analyse von solarthermischen Turmkraftwerken , 2000 .

[12]  Bernhard Mayer,et al.  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Technical Note: the Libradtran Software Package for Radiative Transfer Calculations – Description and Examples of Use , 2022 .

[13]  Gang Li,et al.  The HITRAN 2008 molecular spectroscopic database , 2005 .

[14]  Robert Pitz-Paal,et al.  Determination of circumsolar radiation and its effect on concentrating solar power , 2014 .

[15]  C. Gueymard.  Visibility, aerosol conditions, and irradiance attenuation close to the ground—Comments on “Solar radiation attenuation in solar tower plants” by J. Ballestrin and A. Marzo, Solar Energy (2012) , 2012 .

[16]  S. Abdelhady,et al.  Analytical Study of an Innovated Solar Power Tower (PS10) in Aswan , 2012 .

[17]  Robert Pitz-Paal,et al.  Determination of beam attenuation in tower plants , 2012 .

[18]  C. Gertig,et al.  SoFiA – A Novel Simulation Tool for Central Receiver Systems , 2014 .

[19]  Peter Schwarzbözl,et al.  Annual Yield Analysis of Solar Tower Power Plants with Greenius , 2011 .

[20]  Robert Pitz-Paal,et al.  Visual HFLCAL - A Software Tool for Layout and Optimisation of Heliostat Fields , 2009 .

[21]  Tim Wendelin,et al.  SolTRACE: A New Optical Modeling Tool for Concentrating Solar Optics , 2003 .

[22]  Zhifeng Wang,et al.  Design of Heliostats Field for the Scale of 1MW Solar Power Tower Plant , 2012, 2012 Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference.

[23]  F. Biggs,et al.  User's guide to HELIOS: a computer program for modeling the optical behavior of reflecting solar concentrators. Part I. Introduction and code input , 1981 .

[24]  C. Gueymard.  Parameterized transmittance model for direct beam and circumsolar spectral irradiance , 2001 .

[25]  Jesús Polo,et al.  Sensitivity study for modelling atmospheric attenuation of solar radiation with radiative transfer models and the impact in solar tower plant production , 2016 .

[26]  Pierre Garcia,et al.  Codes for solar flux calculation dedicated to central receiver system applications : A comparative review , 2008 .

[27]  Manuel Romero,et al.  Methodology for generation of heliostat field layout in central receiver systems based on yearly normalized energy surfaces , 2006 .

[28]  Robert Pitz-Paal,et al.  A New Fast Ray Tracing Tool for High-Precision Simulation of Heliostat Fields , 2009 .

[29]  Jesús Ballestrín,et al.  Solar radiation attenuation in solar tower plants , 2012 .

[30]  Aron Dobos,et al.  System Advisor Model, SAM 2011.12.2: General Description , 2012 .

[31]  Zhor Hassar,et al.  Modeling of Irradiance Attenuation from a Heliostat to the Receiver of a Solar Central Tower , 2014 .

[32]  Robert Pitz-Paal,et al.  Atmospheric extinction in solar tower plants: absorption and broadband correction for MOR measurements , 2015 .

[33]  S. Wilbert,et al.  Atmospheric extinction in simulation tools for solar tower plants , 2017 .

[34]  M. Sengupta,et al.  Atmospheric Attenuation in Central Receiver Systems from DNI Measurements , 2012 .