@inproceedings{CaminosSchmitzAttietal.2022, author = {Caminos, Ricardo Alexander Chico and Schmitz, Pascal and Atti, Vikrama and Mahdi, Zahra and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Sattler, Johannes Christoph and Herrmann, Ulf and Hilger, Patrick and Dieckmann, Simon}, title = {Development of a micro heliostat and optical qualification assessment with a 3D laser scanning method}, series = {SOLARPACES 2020}, booktitle = {SOLARPACES 2020}, number = {2445 / 1}, publisher = {AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville, NY}, isbn = {978-0-7354-4195-8}, issn = {1551-7616 (online)}, doi = {10.1063/5.0086262}, pages = {8 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The Solar-Institut J{\"u}lich (SIJ) and the companies Hilger GmbH and Heliokon GmbH from Germany have developed a small-scale cost-effective heliostat, called "micro heliostat". Micro heliostats can be deployed in small-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) plants to concentrate the sun's radiation for electricity generation, space or domestic water heating or industrial process heat. In contrast to conventional heliostats, the special feature of a micro heliostat is that it consists of dozens of parallel-moving, interconnected, rotatable mirror facets. The mirror facets array is fixed inside a box-shaped module and is protected from weathering and wind forces by a transparent glass cover. The choice of the building materials for the box, tracking mechanism and mirrors is largely dependent on the selected production process and the intended application of the micro heliostat. Special attention was paid to the material of the tracking mechanism as this has a direct influence on the accuracy of the micro heliostat. The choice of materials for the mirror support structure and the tracking mechanism is made in favor of plastic molded parts. A qualification assessment method has been developed by the SIJ in which a 3D laser scanner is used in combination with a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). For the validation of this assessment method, a single mirror facet was scanned and the slope deviation was computed.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{DuranParedesMottaghyHerrmannetal.2020, author = {Duran Paredes, Ludwin and Mottaghy, Darius and Herrmann, Ulf and Groß, Rolf Fritz}, title = {Online ground temperature and soil moisture monitoring of a shallow geothermal system with non-conventional components}, series = {EGU General Assembly 2020}, booktitle = {EGU General Assembly 2020}, year = {2020}, abstract = {We present first results from a newly developed monitoring station for a closed loop geothermal heat pump test installation at our campus, consisting of helix coils and plate heat exchangers, as well as an ice-store system. There are more than 40 temperature sensors and several soil moisture content sensors distributed around the system, allowing a detailed monitoring under different operating conditions.In the view of the modern development of renewable energies along with the newly concepts known as Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 (high-tech strategy from the German government), we created a user-friendly web application, which will connect the things (sensors) with the open network (www). Besides other advantages, this allows a continuous remote monitoring of the data from the numerous sensors at an arbitrary sampling rate.Based on the recorded data, we will also present first results from numerical simulations, taking into account all relevant heat transport processes.The aim is to improve the understanding of these processes and their influence on the thermal behavior of shallow geothermal systems in the unsaturated zone. This will in turn facilitate the prediction of the performance of these systems and therefore yield an improvement in their dimensioning when designing a specific shallow geothermal installation.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{GedleSchmitzGielenetal.2022, author = {Gedle, Yibekal and Schmitz, Mark and Gielen, Hans and Schmitz, Pascal and Herrmann, Ulf and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Mahdi, Zahra and Caminos, Ricardo Alexander Chico and Dersch, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Analysis of an integrated CSP-PV hybrid power plant}, series = {SolarPACES 2020}, booktitle = {SolarPACES 2020}, number = {2445 / 1}, publisher = {AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville, NY}, isbn = {978-0-7354-4195-8}, issn = {1551-7616 (online)}, doi = {10.1063/5.0086236}, pages = {9 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In the past, CSP and PV have been seen as competing technologies. Despite massive reductions in the electricity generation costs of CSP plants, PV power generation is - at least during sunshine hours - significantly cheaper. If electricity is required not only during the daytime, but around the clock, CSP with its inherent thermal energy storage gets an advantage in terms of LEC. There are a few examples of projects in which CSP plants and PV plants have been co-located, meaning that they feed into the same grid connection point and ideally optimize their operation strategy to yield an overall benefit. In the past eight years, TSK Flagsol has developed a plant concept, which merges both solar technologies into one highly Integrated CSP-PV-Hybrid (ICPH) power plant. Here, unlike in simply co-located concepts, as analyzed e.g. in [1] - [4], excess PV power that would have to be dumped is used in electric molten salt heaters to increase the storage temperature, improving storage and conversion efficiency. The authors demonstrate the electricity cost sensitivity to subsystem sizing for various market scenarios, and compare the resulting optimized ICPH plants with co-located hybrid plants. Independent of the three feed-in tariffs that have been assumed, the ICPH plant shows an electricity cost advantage of almost 20\% while maintaining a high degree of flexibility in power dispatch as it is characteristic for CSP power plants. As all components of such an innovative concept are well proven, the system is ready for commercial market implementation. A first project is already contracted and in early engineering execution.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{LahrsKrisamHerrmann2023, author = {Lahrs, Lennart and Krisam, Pierre and Herrmann, Ulf}, title = {Envisioning a collaborative energy system planning platform for the energy transition at the district level}, series = {The 36th International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization, Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems}, booktitle = {The 36th International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization, Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems}, publisher = {Procedings of ECOS 2023}, doi = {10.52202/069564-0284}, pages = {3163 -- 3170}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Residential and commercial buildings account for more than one-third of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Integrated multi-energy systems at the district level are a promising way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by exploiting economies of scale and synergies between energy sources. Planning district energy systems comes with many challenges in an ever-changing environment. Computational modelling established itself as the state-of-the-art method for district energy system planning. Unfortunately, it is still cumbersome to combine standalone models to generate insights that surpass their original purpose. Ideally, planning processes could be solved by using modular tools that easily incorporate the variety of competing and complementing computational models. Our contribution is a vision for a collaborative development and application platform for multi-energy system planning tools at the district level. We present challenges of district energy system planning identified in the literature and evaluate whether this platform can help to overcome these challenges. Further, we propose a toolkit that represents the core technical elements of the platform. Lastly, we discuss community management and its relevance for the success of projects with collaboration and knowledge sharing at their core.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{MahdiDerschSchmitzetal.2022, author = {Mahdi, Zahra and Dersch, J{\"u}rgen and Schmitz, Pascal and Dieckmann, Simon and Caminos, Ricardo Alexander Chico and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Herrmann, Ulf and Schwager, Christian and Schmitz, Mark and Gielen, Hans and Gedle, Yibekal and B{\"u}scher, Rauno}, title = {Technical assessment of Brayton cycle heat pumps for the integration in hybrid PV-CSP power plants}, series = {SOLARPACES 2020}, booktitle = {SOLARPACES 2020}, number = {2445 / 1}, publisher = {AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville, NY}, isbn = {978-0-7354-4195-8}, issn = {1551-7616 (online)}, doi = {10.1063/5.0086269}, pages = {11 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The hybridization of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Photovoltaics (PV) systems is a promising approach to reduce costs of solar power plants, while increasing dispatchability and flexibility of power generation. High temperature heat pumps (HT HP) can be utilized to boost the salt temperature in the thermal energy storage (TES) of a Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) system from 385 °C up to 565 °C. A PV field can supply the power for the HT HP, thus effectively storing the PV power as thermal energy. Besides cost-efficiently storing energy from the PV field, the power block efficiency of the overall system is improved due to the higher steam parameters. This paper presents a technical assessment of Brayton cycle heat pumps to be integrated in hybrid PV-CSP power plants. As a first step, a theoretical analysis was carried out to find the most suitable working fluid. The analysis included the fluids Air, Argon (Ar), Nitrogen (N2) and Carbon dioxide (CO2). N2 has been chosen as the optimal working fluid for the system. After the selection of the ideal working medium, different concepts for the arrangement of a HT HP in a PV-CSP hybrid power plant were developed and simulated in EBSILON®Professional. The concepts were evaluated technically by comparing the number of components required, pressure losses and coefficient of performance (COP).}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{NeumannAdamBackesetal.2021, author = {Neumann, Hannah and Adam, Mario and Backes, Klaus and B{\"o}rner, Martin and Clees, Tanja and Doetsch, Christian and Glaeser, Susanne and Herrmann, Ulf and May, Johanna and Rosenthal, Florian and Sauer, Dirk Uwe and Stadler, Ingo}, title = {Development of open educational resources for renewable energy and the energy transition process}, series = {ISES SWC 2021}, booktitle = {ISES SWC 2021}, publisher = {International Solar Energy Society}, address = {Freiburg}, doi = {10.18086/swc.2021.47.03}, pages = {6 Seiten}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The dissemination of knowledge about renewable energies is understood as a social task with the highest topicality. The transfer of teaching content on renewable energies into digital open educational resources offers the opportunity to significantly accelerate the implementation of the energy transition. Thus, in the here presented project six German universities create open educational resources for the energy transition. These materials are available to the public on the internet under a free license. So far there has been no publicly accessible, editable media that cover entire learning units about renewable energies extensively and in high technical quality. Thus, in this project, the content that remains up-to-date for a longer period is appropriately prepared in terms of media didactics. The materials enable lecturers to provide students with in-depth training about technologies for the energy transition. In a particular way, the created material is also suitable for making the general public knowledgeable about the energy transition with scientifically based material.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{NiederwestbergSchneiderTeixeiraBouraetal.2022, author = {Niederwestberg, Stefan and Schneider, Falko and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Herrmann, Ulf}, title = {Introduction to a direct irradiated transparent tube particle receiver}, series = {SOLARPACES 2020}, booktitle = {SOLARPACES 2020}, number = {2445 / 1}, publisher = {AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville, NY}, isbn = {978-0-7354-4195-8}, issn = {1551-7616 (online)}, doi = {10.1063/5.0086735}, pages = {9 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {New materials often lead to innovations and advantages in technical applications. This also applies to the particle receiver proposed in this work that deploys high-temperature and scratch resistant transparent ceramics. With this receiver design, particles are heated through direct-contact concentrated solar irradiance while flowing downwards through tubular transparent ceramics from top to bottom. In this paper, the developed particle receiver as well as advantages and disadvantages are described. Investigations on the particle heat-up characteristics from solar irradiance were carried out with DEM simulations which indicate that particle temperatures can reach up to 1200 K. Additionally, a simulation model was set up for investigating the dynamic behavior. A test receiver at laboratory scale has been designed and is currently being built. In upcoming tests, the receiver test rig will be used to validate the simulation results. The design and the measurement equipment is described in this work.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SattlerAttiAlexopoulosetal.2022, author = {Sattler, Johannes Christoph and Atti, Vikrama and Alexopoulos, Spiros and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Herrmann, Ulf and Dutta, Siddharth and Kioutsioukis, Ioannis}, title = {DNI forecast tool for the smart operation of a parabolic trough collector system with concrete thermal energy storage: Theory, results and outlook}, series = {SolarPACES conference proceedings}, booktitle = {SolarPACES conference proceedings}, number = {VOL. 1}, publisher = {TIB Open Publishing}, address = {Hannover}, issn = {2751-9899 (online)}, doi = {10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.731}, pages = {9 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This work presents a basic forecast tool for predicting direct normal irradiance (DNI) in hourly resolution, which the Solar-Institut J{\"u}lich (SIJ) is developing within a research project. The DNI forecast data shall be used for a parabolic trough collector (PTC) system with a concrete thermal energy storage (C-TES) located at the company KEAN Soft Drinks Ltd in Limassol, Cyprus. On a daily basis, 24-hour DNI prediction data in hourly resolution shall be automatically produced using free or very low-cost weather forecast data as input. The purpose of the DNI forecast tool is to automatically transfer the DNI forecast data on a daily basis to a main control unit (MCU). The MCU automatically makes a smart decision on the operation mode of the PTC system such as steam production mode and/or C-TES charging mode. The DNI forecast tool was evaluated using historical data of measured DNI from an on-site weather station, which was compared to the DNI forecast data. The DNI forecast tool was tested using data from 56 days between January and March 2022, which included days with a strong variation in DNI due to cloud passages. For the evaluation of the DNI forecast reliability, three categories were created and the forecast data was sorted accordingly. The result was that the DNI forecast tool has a reliability of 71.4 \% based on the tested days. The result fulfils SIJ's aim to achieve a reliability of around 70 \%, but SIJ aims to still improve the DNI forecast quality.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SattlerSchneiderAngeleetal.2022, author = {Sattler, Johannes Christoph and Schneider, Iesse Peer and Angele, Florian and Atti, Vikrama and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Herrmann, Ulf}, title = {Development of heliostat field calibration methods: Theory and experimental test results}, series = {SolarPACES conference proceedings}, booktitle = {SolarPACES conference proceedings}, number = {Vol. 1}, publisher = {TIB Open Publishing}, address = {Hannover}, issn = {2751-9899 (online)}, doi = {10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.678}, pages = {9 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In this work, three patent pending calibration methods for heliostat fields of central receiver systems (CRS) developed by the Solar-Institut J{\"u}lich (SIJ) of the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences are presented. The calibration methods can either operate in a combined mode or in stand-alone mode. The first calibration method, method A, foresees that a camera matrix is placed into the receiver plane where it is subjected to concentrated solar irradiance during a measurement process. The second calibration method, method B, uses an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) such as a quadrocopter to automatically fly into the reflected solar irradiance cross-section of one or more heliostats (two variants of method B were tested). The third calibration method, method C, foresees a stereo central camera or multiple stereo cameras installed e.g. on the solar tower whereby the orientations of the heliostats are calculated from the location detection of spherical red markers attached to the heliostats. The most accurate method is method A which has a mean accuracy of 0.17 mrad. The mean accuracy of method B variant 1 is 1.36 mrad and of variant 2 is 1.73 mrad. Method C has a mean accuracy of 15.07 mrad. For method B there is great potential regarding improving the measurement accuracy. For method C the collected data was not sufficient for determining whether or not there is potential for improving the accuracy.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SchulteSchwagerFrantzetal.2022, author = {Schulte, Jonas and Schwager, Christian and Frantz, Cathy and Schloms, Felix and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Herrmann, Ulf}, title = {Control concept for a molten salt receiver in star design: Development, optimization and testing with cloud passage scenarios}, series = {SolarPACES conference proceedings}, booktitle = {SolarPACES conference proceedings}, number = {Vol. 1}, publisher = {TIB Open Publishing}, address = {Hannover}, issn = {2751-9899 (online)}, doi = {10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.693}, pages = {9 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {A promising approach to reduce the system costs of molten salt solar receivers is to enable the irradiation of the absorber tubes on both sides. The star design is an innovative receiver design, pursuing this approach. The unconventional design leads to new challenges in controlling the system. This paper presents a control concept for a molten salt receiver system in star design. The control parameters are optimized in a defined test cycle by minimizing a cost function. The control concept is tested in realistic cloud passage scenarios based on real weather data. During these tests, the control system showed no sign of unstable behavior, but to perform sufficiently in every scenario further research and development like integrating Model Predictive Controls (MPCs) need to be done. The presented concept is a starting point to do so.}, language = {en} }