Analysis reveals the impact of heliostat size on levelized cost of heat in concentrating solar thermal systems, highlighting trade-offs in performance and cost.
This study investigates the impact of heliostat size on the levelized cost of heat (LCOH) and explores the trade-off between performance and cost for a baseline 160 MWth concentrating solar thermal (CST) tower system at high temperatures (565°C – 1550°C). The analysis assumes blackbody radiation for thermal losses at the receiver and employs ray tracing to assess optical losses in the heliostat field. A surrogate cost model is used to break down component costs for a specific commercial heliostat design (i.e., SunRing), considering volume production and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs to determine installation costs. The results indicate that heliostat size significantly affects the LCOH at different temperatures, with installation costs being a crucial factor in determining the optimal heliostat size. These installation costs vary by temperature and plant size due to power requirements and volume production considerations. The results motivate ongoing research to further refine the cost model and explore the projects of different sizes.
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Gamil et al. (2025) studied this question.
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