Life Cycle Cost Optimized Heliostat Size for Power Towers

AbstractThe study examines existing glass metal heliostats from the size range of 8 m2 to beyond 100 m2 and takes all relevant costs into account to identify the most promising heliostat size of around 40 m2 to optimize the life cycle cost.Detailed heliostat cost breakdown is organized into three categories to reflect the costs as seen in a real life project. The three categories (Component, Installation/checkout and Operations/maintenance costs) are then summed to calculate the life cycle cost of ownership for different size heliostats [1]. The estimated costs are mainly for comparison and must be taken as indicative values and not as absolute values.Literature is reviewed to develop a technical model that ensures that the heliostat components are sized properly. A technical model to calculate loads on all elements of the heliostat is developed, comprehensively taking into account existing literature dealing with wind, gravitational loads on heliostats that are generally used to size elements of a heliostat. The results are then applied on a FEM platform to optimize the elements of heliostats with stress and displacement based method of analysis.The maximum optical error that can be generated at various operational wind speeds is also discussed. The result is the development of a heliostat which has a credible performance that can be simulated at different wind speeds