Optical analysis of a multi-aperture solar central receiver system for high-temperature concentrating solar applications

A multi-aperture solar central receiver system is optically analyzed for increasing the net power to the receiver in a wide temperature range of 600-1800 K. A model system comprises a tower, a multi-aperture receiver with compound parabolic concentrators, and heliostat sub-fields. Optical modeling is performed using in-house developed Monte-Carlo ray-tracing programs. The heliostat sub-field geometrical configuration, the number of receiver apertures and optical properties of reflective surfaces are varied in the parametric study. Increasing the number of apertures from one to four increases the maximum net receiver power from 116MW to 332MW. The use of more than four apertures results in only limited further gain of the net receiver power but significantly decreases the overall optical efficiency and the solar-to-thermal efficiency. The optimal temperature for the maximized annual solar-to-exergy efficiency is found in the range of 1100-1200 K. This optimal temperature decreases slightly with an increasing number of apertures.