The optics of the solar tower reflector

✍ Scribed by Akiba Segal; Michael Epstein

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 587 KB
• Volume: 69
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-092X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0038-092x(00)00137-7

✦ Synopsis

The concept of the reflective solar tower is based on inverting the path of the solar rays originating from a heliostat field to a solar receiver that can be placed on the ground. This system is based on the property of a reflective quadric surface to reflect each ray oriented to one of its foci to its second focus. Two shapes of surfaces can be used: one is concave -the ellipsoid, and the other is convex -the hyperboloid (with two sheets). This study analyzes the achievable optical performances of these types of reflectors and proves that the hyperboloidal surface is a superior reflector. The optics of the hyperboloid are analyzed in detail.