Adaptive Heliostat Control Strategy Based on Gossip Algorithm in Preventing Transient Thermal Flux

The solar power tower attracts increasing attentions in recent years, as an important and high efficiency technology in renewable power generation. Heat transfer fluid is heated by focusing the concentrated solar radiation on a tower-mounted receiver, and then is used to drive the turbine, and thereafter generate electric power. One of the challenges in solar power tower operation is due to sudden thermal changes on the surface of the central receiver. To be more specific, when cloud moves towards the solar power tower plant, it will block the solar beam, and lead to severe temperature change on the central receiver. Such transient thermal flux may lead to fatigue and failure of the central receiver before expected number of thermal cycles. In this work, we propose a new control strategy, which uses wireless communication channels to spread the control signal in between the heliostats to prevent transient thermal flux. In addition, the proposed control strategy is expected to save the capital cost in the interconnecting cable that is used to control the heliostats in the field.