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The conventional approach in utility-scale solar plants is to use a large truck with a water tank and pump system for spraying deionized water on the surface of the solar collectors. Washing solar collectors with water and detergent, as is most commonly done now, is an efficient method for cleaning. If solar collectors are not cleaned, the accumulation of dust layers on solar collectors may cause the operation of such plants in arid regions to become economically unviable. There is no fuel cost hence operating a solar plant in a semi-arid or desert region provides high returns on investment if soiling losses are mitigated via efficient cleaning methods and optimized cleaning frequency. There are two major cost components to operating a solar plant: (1) installation costs, and (2) operation-and-maintenance (O&M) costs. The deposition of a layer of dust on the optical surfaces of solar collectors such as PV modules and concentrating mirrors reduces the transmission efficiency of sunlight that actually reaches the solar cells or receivers, resulting in high energy-yield soiling loss. Semi-arid and desert regions, however, are plagued by high atmospheric dust concentrations and frequent sand storms. Operating PV plants in mid-latitude sun-belt regions, where the solar irradiance level is highest, provides a high annual energy-yield (kWh/kWp) due to two factors: more » (1) the availability of predictable high solar irradiance throughout the year with the fewest interruptions in solar flux from clouds and rain, and (2) the increased conversion efficiency of crystalline solar cells, as recombination loss has decreased with increased intensity of the sunlight that illuminates the silicon solar cells. « lessĮXECUTIVE SUMMARY Over the past decade, techno-economical advancements in solar energy systems, particularly the improvement in the conversion efficiency of PV modules made with mono-crystalline silicon solar cells from 12% to 20%, as well as the cost reduction in manufacturing by a factor of about 10%, have made it possible to achieve a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) in PV plants that is comparable to, or less than, the cost of deriving electricity from fossil fuels.
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The results will provide insights into a better understanding on inherent technical aspects of different CSP technologies. Sensitivity of three CSP technologies to the deployment locations and the overall optical-error magnitude is also examined through annual performance analysis. It is also shown that a dramatic cost reduction is required for the selected linear Fresnel technology to be competitive in the future energy market. The selected central-receiver technology provides the most consistent seasonal production profile over the course of the year due to its two-axis-tracking ability but would suffer most from the increasing solar collector optical error. The parabolic trough has the highest optical performance among all. Using China Lake (California) as an example, the annual optical efficiency is 60% for the selected parabolic trough collector, 52% for the selected central-receiver technology, and 40% for the selected linear Fresnel collector. The efficiency over a one-year period is then analyzed based on ray-tracing more » results. The ray-tracing algorithm is used to calculate a collector's design-point performance as well as its incidence-angle modifiers to evaluate the collector performance at any sun position during a typical meteorological year.
Soltrace ls3 software#
Optical models are implemented in SolTrace, which is ray-tracing software developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This study presents a detailed optical comparison between three representative CSP collector designs including linear Fresnel, parabolic trough, and central-receiver technologies. #0 Foam::error::printStack(Foam::Ostream&) at ?:? #1 Foam::error::abort() at ?:? #2 Foam::heRhoThermo >, Foam::sensibleEnthalpy>::calculate() at ?:? #3 Foam::heRhoThermo >, Foam::sensibleEnthalpy>::correct() at ?:? #4 ? at ?:? #5 _libc_start_main in "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.The optical performance of a concentrating solar power (CSP) collector is critical to the overall efficiency of the system. > FOAM FATAL ERROR: Maximum number of iterations exceededįrom function Foam::scalar Foam::species::thermo::T(Foam::scalar, Foam::scalar, Foam::scalar, Foam::scalar (Foam::species::thermo::*)(Foam::scalar, Foam::scalar) const, Foam::scalar (Foam::species::thermo::*)(Foam::scalar, Foam::scalar) const, Foam::scalar (Foam::species::thermo::*)(Foam::scalar) const) const in file /home/ubuntu/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-4.1/src/thermophysicalModels/specie/lnInclude/thermoI.H at line 66. I have some problem with chtMultiRegionSimpleFoam