TY - CHAP A1 - Sattler, Johannes Christoph A1 - Schneider, Iesse Peer A1 - Angele, Florian A1 - Atti, Vikrama A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Development of heliostat field calibration methods: Theory and experimental test results T2 - SolarPACES 2022 conference proceedings N2 - In this work, three patent pending calibration methods for heliostat fields of central receiver systems (CRS) developed by the Solar-Institut Jülich (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. KW - Heliostat Field Calibration KW - Unmanned aerial vehicle KW - UAV KW - Quadrocopter KW - Camera system Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.678 SN - 2751-9899 (online) N1 - SolarPACES 2022: 28th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 27-30 September, Albuquerque, NM, USA IS - 1 PB - TIB Open Publishing CY - Hannover ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Caminos, Ricardo Alexander Chico A1 - Schmitz, Pascal A1 - Atti, Vikrama A1 - Mahdi, Zahra A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Sattler, Johannes Christoph A1 - Herrmann, Ulf A1 - Hilger, Patrick A1 - Dieckmann, Simon T1 - Development of a micro heliostat and optical qualification assessment with a 3D laser scanning method T2 - SOLARPACES 2020 N2 - The Solar-Institut Jülich (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. KW - Concentrated solar power KW - Electricity generation KW - Measuring instruments KW - Heliostats KW - Global change Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-0-7354-4195-8 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0086262 SN - 1551-7616 (online) SN - 0094-243X (print) N1 - SOLARPACES 2020: 26th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 28 September–2 October 2020, Freiburg, Germany IS - 2445 / 1 PB - AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Dachwald, Bernd A1 - Wurm, P. T1 - Design concept and modeling of an advanced solar photon thruster T2 - Advances in the Astronautical Sciences N2 - The so-called "compound solar sail", also known as "Solar Photon Thruster" (SPT), holds the potential of providing significant performance advantages over the flat solar sail. Previous SPT design concepts, however, do not consider shadowing effects and multiple reflections of highly concentrated solar radiation that would inevitably destroy the gossamer sail film. In this paper, we propose a novel advanced SPT (ASPT) design concept that does not suffer from these oversimplifications. We present the equations that describe the thrust force acting on such a sail system and compare its performance with respect to the conventional flat solar sail. KW - solar sails Y1 - 2009 SN - 978-087703554-1 SN - 00653438 N1 - 19th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting; Savannah, GA; United States; 8 February 2009 through 12 February 2009 SP - 723 EP - 740 PB - American Astronautical Society CY - San Diego, Calif. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schulte, Jonas A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Frantz, Cathy A1 - Schloms, Felix A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Control concept for a molten salt receiver in star design: Development, optimization and testing with cloud passage scenarios T2 - SolarPACES 2022 conference proceedings N2 - 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. KW - Molten salt receiver KW - Star design KW - Control optimization KW - Cloud passages Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.693 SN - 2751-9899 (online) N1 - SolarPACES 2022, 28th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 27-30 September, Albuquerque, NM, USA IS - 1 PB - TIB Open Publishing CY - Hannover ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Gehler, M. A1 - Ober-Blöbaum, S. A1 - Dachwald, Bernd T1 - Application of discrete mechanics and optimal control to spacecraft in non-keplerian motion around small solar system bodies T2 - Procceedings of the 60th International Astronautical Congress N2 - Prolonged operations close to small solar system bodies require a sophisticated control logic to minimize propellant mass and maximize operational efficiency. A control logic based on Discrete Mechanics and Optimal Control (DMOC) is proposed and applied to both conventionally propelled and solar sail spacecraft operating at an arbitrarily shaped asteroid in the class of Itokawa. As an example, stand-off inertial hovering is considered, recently identified as a challenging part of the Marco Polo mission. The approach is easily extended to stand-off orbits. We show that DMOC is applicable to spacecraft control at small objects, in particular with regard to the fact that the changes in gravity are exploited by the algorithm to optimally control the spacecraft position. Furthermore, we provide some remarks on promising developments. KW - Spacecraft Y1 - 2009 SN - 978-161567908-9 N1 - 60th International Astronautical Congress 2009, IAC 2009; Daejeon; South Korea; 12 October 2009 through 16 October 2009 SP - 1360 EP - 1371 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Gedle, Yibekal A1 - Schmitz, Mark A1 - Gielen, Hans A1 - Schmitz, Pascal A1 - Herrmann, Ulf A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Mahdi, Zahra A1 - Caminos, Ricardo Alexander Chico A1 - Dersch, Jürgen T1 - Analysis of an integrated CSP-PV hybrid power plant T2 - SOLARPACES 2020 N2 - 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. KW - Hybrid energy system KW - Power plants KW - Electricity generation KW - Energy storage KW - Associated liquids Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-0-7354-4195-8 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0086236 SN - 1551-7616 (online) SN - 0094-243X (print) N1 - SOLARPACES 2020: 26th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 28 September–2 October 2020, Freiburg, Germany IS - 2445 / 1 PB - AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY ER -