Esolar, Inc.

Michael Slack

Christian T Gregory

Dan Reznik

Porter Arbogast

Bill Gross

Quoc Pham

Andrew John Zillmer

Adam Azarchs

Maximilian Ted Zavodny

Matthew B Hartshorn

David Gross

William Dwight Cassity

A solar power plant includes central receiver modules arranged in a regular pattern. Each central receiver module includes a tower, a central receiver mounted on the tower, and a heliostat array bounded by a polygon. The heliostat array includes heliostats with mirrors for reflecting sunlight to the central receiver. The heliostats are grouped in linear rows and each of the rows is parallel to another row. The locations of the heliostats are staggered between adjacent rows. The power plant also includes a power block for aggregating power from the central receivers and power conduits for transferring power from the central receivers to the power block.

Heliostat array layouts for multi-tower central receiver solar power plants

Methods and systems for optimizing the startup, shutdown, and running operation of a multiple receiver concentrated solar power (CSP) plant comprising a predicted variable from at least one receiver model, a predicted variable from a plant model, and a determined target from an optimizer based on the predicted variable from the at least one receiver model and the predicted variable from the plant model.

Advanced control of a multiple receiver concentrated solar power plant

Methods and systems for setting a throttle at a solar power plant, by a controller, the controller configured to select at least one aim point on a receiver of the solar power plant, calculate a desired energy to be delivered by two or more subgroups to each selected aim point via a search method based on an aiming scheme, and determine an optimum distribution of energy to be delivered to the receiver across the two or more subgroups via a search program based on the calculated desired energy.

Heliostat field power controller for setting a throttle to determine an optimum distribution of energy

Methods and systems for measuring heliostat reflectivity with a control processing unit configured to receive an image of a heliostat, receive an image of the Sun, process the received images, and determine a reflectivity estimate based on a comparison of the processed images.

Automated heliostat reflectivity measurement system

Growing community of inventors

South Pasadena, CA, United States of America

Michael Slack