Autonomous light-weight heliostat with rim drives

Several approaches for cost reduction of heliostats, which fit well to each other, are combined to a new heliostat concept to achieve the current challenging cost objectives: The wind loads are reduced by appropriate manipulators which reduces weight and cost of the heliostat structure and the ground anchor foundation. Laminated mirror facets are of high reflectivity and shape accuracy and of low weight. The low weight is advantageous for the dimensioning of the bearings and regarding energy consumption. Energy consumption is further reduced by a highly efficient drive train. Thus, small capacity of the wireless energy supply of the autonomous heliostat is sufficient which reduces significantly its cost. By the combination of horizontal primary axis with rims and winch wheels a cheap and precise solution for the drives was found. Ray tracing calculations show that the losses due to the compromised angle range are negligible. With the new heliostat concept the current cost goals seem to be achievable

Wireless heliostat and control system for large self-powered heliostat fields

The HELIOMESH project pursues the goal to evaluate and validate the feasibility of a wireless mesh network as control technology in a field of self-powered heliostats, thus eliminating the need for cabling. To enhance precision of control, an auto-calibration method was implemented. The team chose a combination of a practical approach combined with simulations to ensure scalability for large heliostats field to be build in the future: About 100 small communication devices, so called HelioNodes, are deployed in the DLR Solar Tower Demonstration Plant heliostat field, controlled by a base station located in the tower. The deployment validates the feasibility and the industrial capability of the wireless mesh control system. In simulations, the good performance of the wireless communication is shown for huge fields. Additionally, the auto-calibration technology was optimized and successfully tested using self-developed, self-powered 8m² heliostats. These heliostats were tested and optimized, with a focus on power management and drive efficiency. Results prove that stepper motors are a good choice in case state of the art electronics are used for control

Autonomous light-weight heliostat with rim drives

To achieve the current challenging cost objectives, several approaches for cost reduction, which fit well to each other, are combined: The wind loads are reduced by appropriate manipulators which reduces weight and cost of the heliostat structure and the ground anchor foundation. Laminated mirror facets are of high reflectivity and shape accuracy and of low weight. The low weight is advantageous for the dimensioning of the bearings and regarding energy consumption. Energy consumption is further reduced by a highly efficient drive train. Thus small capacity of the wireless energy supply of the autonomous heliostat is sufficient which reduces significantly its cost. By the combination of horizontal primary axis with rims and winch wheels a cheap and precise solution for the drives was found. Ray tracing calculations show that the losses due to the reduced angle range are negligible. With the new heliostat concept the current cost goals seem to be achievable

A holistic approach for low cost heliostat fields

The AutoR-project takes a holistic approach to reduce the cost of heliostat fields: Wireless control and energy supply enables to use smaller heliostats which need less steel per mirror area (but usually have high wiring cost). A low cost but high efficient drive system is chosen which reduces energy consumption to a minimum amount and leads to low cost for PV cell and energy storage. The usual boundary layer wind tunnels tests for heliostats are proven regarding energy spectra to avoid oversizing of steel structure and drives or failures because of underestimations of the loads. The concepts for wireless control and energy supply, the wind tunnel investigations and the first rim drive heliostat prototype are presented