Development of a Low-Cost Optical Concentrator for Concentrating Solar Power

Economical clean energy production and storage technologies enable a path to reduced reliance on fossil fuels. While variable renewable energies (VREs) such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy have increased their penetration into the power grid, current technologies are still not viable for baseload power generation. While no single green energy source provides a solution for all our energy needs, concentrated solar power (CSP) provides a pathway for better energy storage capabilities leading to better clean baseload power generation. Current CSP technologies are not competitive with PV and wind energy due to high capital and operating costs. To combat the high capital costs for CSP facilities, the team at Southwest Research Institute, SwRI, and Idealab Studios have developed a novel designed for heliostats. The design utilizes low-cost building materials with low complexity custom parts to decrease the overall cost per unit. This design features two concrete assemblies and one aluminum assembly. The base and central concrete pieces are separated by polymer balls and connected via a friction roller to allow for controlled relative rotation between the two units. The aluminum assembly supports a mirror and is connected to the central concrete piece via a linkage arm and power screw to control the mirror’s elevation. During this demonstration, the team worked on developing benchtop models for validation of the slew bearing functionality, and endurance testing of the components. The team also created three full-scale units to validate operation and feasibility of the current design. Further development will focus on optimizing the design for cost savings, ease of assembly, and reliability, as well as validation of the control strategy to track along the azimuth and zenith angles.