Publications
Line focus systems
Improving the thermal performance of a trough plant will lower the LCOE: (1) Improve mirror alignment using the TOPCAT system - Current - increase optical intercept of existing trough solar power plants, Future - allows larger apertures with same receiver size in new trough solar power plants, and Increased concentration ratios/collection efficiencies & economies of scale; and (2) Improve tracking using a closed loop tracking system - Open loop tracking currently used own experience and from industry show need for a improved method. Performance testing of a Trough module and/or receiver on the rotating platform: (1) Installed costs of a trough plant are high. A significant portion of this is the material and assembly cost of the trough module. These costs need to be reduced without sacrificing performance; and (2) New receiver coatings with lower heat loss and higher absorbtivity. TOPCAT system is an optical evaluation tool for parabolic trough solar collectors. Aspects of the TOPCAT system are: (1) Practical, rapid, and cost effective; (2) Inherently aligns mirrors to the receiver of an entire solar collector array (SCA); (3) Can be used for existing installations -no equivalent tool exits; (4) Can be used during production; (5) Currently can be used on LS-2 or LS-3 configurations, but can be easily modified for any configuration; and (6)Generally, one time use.