Assessing the impact of optical errors in a novel 2-stage dish concentrator using Monte-Carlo ray-tracing simulation

  • Song Yang
  • , Jun Wang*
  • , Peter D. Lund
  • , Chuan Jiang
  • , Deli Liu
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Optical errors decrease the performance of solar concentrators. Here we assess the sensitivity of a novel 2-stage dish concentrator against optical errors. We use Monte Carlo ray-tracing, probability statistics, and optical geometrical principles in the analyses. The key finding is that the novel concentrator can reach a high radial distribution of flux concentration and high optical efficiency over a range of optical errors. Compared to a traditional 2-dish concentrator, the performance was clearly better. The results are in good agreement with results from the TracePro® tool. The results also imply improved tracking stability with the novel 2-stage dish concentrator.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)603-615
Number of pages13
JournalRenewable Energy
Volume123
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2018
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 51476099) as well as the China-Finland cooperation project (Systemic Research & Development on PV-CST Integration).

Keywords

  • Concentrating solar power
  • Monte-Carlo method
  • Optical error
  • Overlap method
  • Solar dish

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