In concentrated solar power (CSP) stations, large arrays of mirrors which are capable of changing its orientation are used to reflect the incident solar energy to a stationary receiver kept at a distance. Such mirrors are often called as heliostats. The receiver contains a heat absorbing medium like molten salt. By absorbing the thermal energy reflected from thousands of heliostats, the temperature would reach around 6000C and the heat can be used in thermal power plants to generate steam and thus run a turbine to produce electricity. One of the biggest advantages of CSP over conventional energy harvesting from Sun is that it can generate electricity during night for long hours of time from the thermal energy stored during daytime. This eliminates the usage of batteries or any other energy storing methods. The conversion efficiency is also high in CSP due to the high temperature achieved. With prior knowledge of the station coordinates, viz., the latitude and longitude, the day of the year and time, the direction or the path of sun can be fully determined. Typically, the sun's motion is tracked by the azimuth-elevation (Az-El) or the target-aligned configuration heliostats. In both these approaches, the mirror needs to be moved about two axes independently using two actuators in series with the mirror effectively mounted at a single point at the centre. This arrangement causes the mirror to deform in presence of gusty winds in a solar field which results in loss of pointing accuracy. Typically a beam error of less than 2-3 mrad is desirable in a large solar field and this value also includes other sources of loss of pointing accuracy like gravity and wind loading. In order to prevent this, a rigid support frame is required for each of the heliostats. In this work, two three degree-of-freedom parallel manipulators, viz., the 3-UPU wrist and 3-RPS, have been proposed to track the sun in central receiver systems. The main reasons for choosing a parallel manipulator as heliostat are its desirable characteristics like large load carrying capacity, high accuracy in positioning the mirror and easy to obtain the inverse kinematics and convenient for real time control. The proposed parallel manipulators support the load of the mirror, structure and wind loading at three points resulting in less deflection and thus a much larger mirror can be moved with the required tracking accuracy and without increasing the weight of the support structure. The algorithm for sun tracking is developed, extensive simulation study with respect to actuations required, variation of joint angles, spillage loss and leg intersection has been carried out. Using FEA, it is shown that for same sized mirror, wind loading of 22 m/s and maximum deflection requirement (2 mrad), the weight of the support structure is between 15% and 60% less with the parallel manipulators when compared to azimuth-elevation or the target-aligned configurations. A comprehensive study on stroke minimization of prismatic joints is carried out. It is found that a stroke of 700 mm is required for a 2 m x 2 m heliostat at Bangalore when the farthest heliostat is at a distance of 300 m from the tower. Although, there is an extra motor required to track the sun, the 3-RPS manipulator is better than the conventional methods if the mirror area per actuator criteria is taken into consideration. Prototypes of the Az-El and 3-RPS heliostats were made with a mirror size of 1 m x 1 m. A PID controller implemented using MATLAB-Simulink and a low cost, custom made motor driver circuit is used to control the motion of the 3-RPS heliostat. The algorithm developed is tested on the prototype by tracking a point marked on the wall of the lab space and is found to have a tracking error of only 7.1 mrad. Finally, the actual sun tracking is carried out on the roof of a building reflecting the sun-light to a wall situated 6.72 m above and a distance of 15.87 m from the heliostats. The images are captured at various instances of time from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on October 15th and November 10th, 2016, tracking errors are quantified and it is demonstrated that the proposed 3-RPS parallel manipulator can indeed work as a heliostat in concentrated solar power plants.

La situation énergétique actuelle impose le développement de technologies qui utilisent des énergies renouvelables pour limiter la dépendance aux ressources fossiles et diminuer l’impact de l’activité humaine sur le changement climatique. Parmi ces technologies, le solaire thermodynamique utilise l’énergie solaire pour chauffer un absorbeur, l’énergie de cet absorbeur étant alors convertie en électricité à travers un cycle thermodynamique classique. L’amélioration des performances de cette technologie passe par la conception d’absorbeurs capables de fonctionner efficacement à haute température. Dans ce travail de thèse, nous explorons deux voies différentes dans ce but.La première est basée sur la conception de structures multicouches optimisées par algorithme génétique. Nous montrons que ces structures permettent d’obtenir un rendement supérieur à 80 %, valeur très proche des limites fondamentales, démontrant ainsi leur fort potentiel pour le solaire thermodynamique.La seconde voie est basée sur l’optimisation des interactions électromagnétiques dans des structures plasmoniques à base de nanoparticules métalliques. Ces structures sont le siège d’effets coopératifs qui peuvent exalter très fortement les pertes dans la structure. Ces mécanismes sont mis à profit pour concevoir des absorbeurs à base de réseaux binaires de nanoparticules d’or et d’argent dispersées dans une matrice transparente. / The current energy situation requires the development of technologies that use renewable energy sources to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and the impact of human activity on climate change. Among these technologies, thermodynamic solar power uses solar energy to heat an absorber, whose heat is then converted into electricity through a classical thermodynamic cycle. The improvement of the performances of this technology requires the design of absorbers able to operate strongly at high temperature. In this thesis, we explore two different ways for this purpose.The first is based on the design of multilayer structures optimized by a genetic algorithm.We will see that these structures lead to an efficiency higher than 80 %, very close to the fundamental limits, demonstrating so their strong potential for thermodynamic solar technology. The second way is based on the optimization of electromagnetic interactions inside plasmonic nanostructures composed of metal nanoparticles. These structures are the site of cooperative effects between nanoparticles that can exalt strongly losses inside the structure. These mechanisms are exploited to design absorbers based on binary networks made with nanoparticles of gold and silver dispersed in a transparent matrix.

A number of natural resources can be exploited for providing energy, such as the sun, wind, water flow, tides, waves and deep heat generated within the earth. Recently, renewable resources especially that extracted from solar have been significantly encouraged mainly for environmental worries, such as climate change mitigation and global warming, coupled with high oil cost and security and economic matters. The crucial need of energy in human development has also been another important drive pushing the rapid progresses in renewable technologies, which results in both large-scale strategic projects for covering wide urban and rural areas and simple systems suitable for individual buildings. Solar energy has become a widely desired option, especially in high solar radiation areas. The Middle East, especially Gulf region is an ideal geographical area for solar power where it has one of the highest solar irradiation rates across the world. The population in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is significantly small compared to the geographical areas and populations are distributed mostly throughout huge areas forming small villages and rural communities on substantial distances from the main power networks. In Saudi Arabia, there is a crisis in supplying enough electricity to the large cities and domestic remote area in various parts in the country and a wide range of remote areas still suffer from a severe shortage of power supply. In this project, the opportunity of using small-scale solar energy technologies, such as Stand-Alone Building-Integrated PV (SABIPV) systems has been investigated as an optimal solution for providing solar energy to a great deal of off-grid areas in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the expected short and long-term impacts of such solution have been studied. The study showed that the main reasons behind the crisis in supplying electricity to domestic remote and rural off-grid areas in Saudi Arabia are the weakness of the financial returns compared to the cost of providing the service, the difficulty of the natural topography of areas, high cost of maintenance works, and the regulations of providing electric services in Saudi Arabia. This is in addition to the expected environmental impacts, such as raising the pollution rates in the area and the safety influences of extending the high voltage lines over huge areas. On the other hand, the lack of the necessary infrastructure services, particularly electricity and the looking forward for better level of prosperity lead people who live in countryside and remote areas usually to immigrate to in-grid areas which has several short and long-term negative impacts on economic, social and security sides. This study shows that SABIPV system is a cost-Impactive, powerful, and fundamental solution for all off-grid areas in Saudi Arabia including remote villages and rural communities and providing the same level of electricity services that can be achieved in urban on-grid areas. The system is expected to have positive impacts including reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, the expansion of agricultural land and reduce desertification, reducing the influence of high-voltage electrical lines on living organisms, providing adequate electricity service at lower cost, offering more job opportunities for people in remote areas, increasing agricultural and handicraft products, developing the tourism sector in rural areas, reducing the rate of migration from rural areas to the cities, and reducing the slum areas in cities which helps to reduce the rate of crimes, ignorance, the low level of morality, and health and environmental problem.

The thermal efficiency of concentrated solar power (CSP) system depends on the maximum operating temperature of the system which is determined by the operating temperature of the TES device. Organic materials (such as synthetic oil, fatty acid, or paraffin wax) are typically used for TES. This limits the operating temperature of CSP units to below 400 degrees C. Increasing the operating temperature to 560 degrees C (i.e., the creeping temperature of stainless steel), can enhance the theoretical thermal efficiency from 54 percent to 63 percent. However, very few thermal storage materials are compatible for these high temperatures. Molten salts are thermally stable up to 600 degrees C and beyond. Using the molten salts as the TES materials confers several benefits, which include: (1) Higher operating temperature can significantly increase the overall cycle efficiency and resulting costs of power production. (2) Low cost of the molten salt materials can drastically reduce the cost. (3) The molten salts, which are environmentally safe, can also reduce the potential environmental impact. However, these materials suffer from poor thermo-physical properties. Impregnating these materials with nanoparticles can enhance these properties. Solvents doped with nanoparticles are termed as nanofluids. Nanofluids have been reported in the literature for the anomalous enhancement of their thermo-physical properties. In this study, the poor thermal properties of the molten salts were enhanced dramatically on mixing with nanoparticles. For example the specific heat capacity of these molten salt eutectics was found to be enhanced by as much as ~ 26 percent on mixing with nanoparticles at a mass fraction of ~ 1 percent. The resultant properties of these nanomaterials were found to be highly sensitive to small variations in the synthesis protocols. Computational models were also developed in this study to explore the fundamental transport mechanisms on the molecular scale for elucidating the anomalous enhancements in the thermo-physical properties that were measured in these experiments. This study is applicable for thermal energy storage systems utilized for other energy conversion technologies – such as geothermal energy, nuclear energy and a combination of energy generation technologies.

Les collecteurs des centrales solaires thermodynamiques sont l’un des postes d’investissement principaux et présentent des performances pouvant encore être améliorées. Face à ce constat, ces travaux de thèse explorent les multiples voies d’amélioration de l’efficacité du champ solaire et si possible de réduction du coût des trois types de surface le constituant : réflecteurs, vitres antireflet, absorbeurs sélectifs. Pour cela, nous avons développé un programme de simulation et d’optimisation (algorithme stochastique) permettant d’étudier et de maximiser les performances solaires des couches minces optiques assurant les trois fonctions des collecteurs solaires. Nous avons ainsi identifié des solutions à la fois de très haute performance, économes en matériaux rares et intégrant les questions de durabilité. Afin de tirer le plein potentiel des solutions identifiées, nous avons en particulier conduit des modélisations multicritères poussées, en étudiant l’impact de la géométrie du collecteur, des conditions atmosphériques spécifiques du lieu d’installation et des problématiques liées au choix des matériaux et à la fabrication des surfaces (rugosité, incertitudes d’épaisseur et de composition). / Solar thermal power plants use large and expensive solar fields to collect solar energy, the performance of which can still be improved. Faced with this situation, this thesis explores multiple pathways to improve performance and if possible reduce cost of the three types of surfaces encountered in solar collectors: reflectors, antireflective windows, selective absorbers. For this purpose, we have developed a simulation and optimization (stochastic algorithm) program, to study and maximize solar performance of the thin films ensuring the three functions of solar collectors. We have identified several solutions which combine high performance, scarce use of rare materials and durability. To reach the full potential of all identified solutions, we have conducted advance multi- criteria analysis, by studying the impact of collector geometry, local atmosphericconditions and problematics related to material selection and surface fabrication (roughness, thickness and composition errors).

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un projet européen visant à améliorer la compétitivité des centrales solaires à concentration. Parmi les différents défis soulevés par ce projet, l’évaluation en temps réel de la disponibilité et de la variabilité de la ressource solaire est un point clé puisqu’elle permettrait une gestion optimisée du champ solaire et, par conséquent, une hausse de la productivité de la centrale. L’objectif de ce travail est donc de développer un outil d’évaluation de la ressource solaire destiné à la gestion de centrales CSP. Pour y parvenir, une étude approfondie des interactions entre le rayonnement solaire et l’atmosphère est tout d’abord menée. Cette étude révèle entre autres que l’éclairement normal direct (DNI) peut se scinder en deux composantes : le DNI par ciel clair et l’indice ciel clair. Le premier représente l’éclairement normal direct reçu au niveau du sol, lorsqu’aucun nuage ne vient occulter le Soleil. Le second traduit l’influence des nuages sur ce rayonnement par ciel clair. Évaluer ces deux composantes est essentiel pour l’opérateur de la centrale car elles lui permettent de connaître les marges de manoeuvre dont il dispose. D’une part, un modèle ciel clair permettant d’estimer et prévoir le DNI par ciel clair en temps réel est donc développé. Il permet de maintenir l’erreur quadratique moyenne sur l’estimation du DNI par ciel clair aux alentours de 30W/m². D’autre part, une caméra hémisphérique a été installée sur le site du laboratoire PROMES-CNRS afin de détecter les nuages et leur mouvement dans le but d’appréhender la variabilité de l’indice ciel clair. Ce système est notamment capable de fournir des images à haute dynamique, permettant de mesurer simultanément des informations dans la zone circumsolaire et dans les zones les plus sombres du ciel. Sur la base du modèle ciel clair et des images fournies par la caméra, un modèle de prévision du DNI pour tout type de conditions a été mis au point. Il permet de maintenir l’erreur quadratique moyenne sur la prévision du DNI aux alentours de 180 W/m², pour des horizons inférieurs à 30 min. En partenariat avec Acciona, l’outil développé est d’ores et déjà opérationnel sur la centrale solaire Palma del Rio II, en Espagne. / This thesis is part of a European research project which aims at improving the solar power plant efficiency. Among the different challenges pointed out by this project, the solar resource assessment and forecasting are essential tasks since they would allow a better real-time management of the solar field, and thus reduce the maintenance activities, while improving the expected benefits. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to develop a solar resource forecasting tool in order to improve the CSP plants management. An extensive review of the interactions between solar radiation and the atmosphere is firstly conducted. It reveals, among other things, that the direct normal irradiance (DNI) can be divided into two components : the clear sky DNI and the clear sky index. The former represents the direct normal irradiance received at ground level, when no clouds are occulting the sun. The latter reflects the influence of clouds on the clear sky DNI. Estimating these two quantities is essential for the plant operator, since it allows a better management of the solar field. As a consequence, a clear sky model able to estimate and forecast the clear sky DNI has been developed. The root mean squared error of the forecast is around 30 W/m². On the other hand, a sky imager has been installed at the PROMES-CNRS laboratory in order to detect clouds and their motion. The system is able to provide high dynamic range images, allowing the measurement of information both into the circumsolar area and into the darkest parts of the sky. Based on the clear sky model and the images provided by the sky imager, a DNI forecasting model is proposed. The root mean square error on the forecast is around 30 W/m², for 30 min forecasting horizon. One system is now operational at a solar power plant located in Palma del Rio II, Spain.

A heliostat is a device that reflects the sun’s rays to a stationary object. There are two different types of heliostat serial and parallel type. The most used is the serial type of heliostat with Azimuthal-Elevation(Az-El) drive. The parallel heliostat includes two or more actuators to accommodate for the movement, one such design is heliostat with Hydraulic Infinite Linear Actuator (HILA). In this design, the mirror assembly is supported by two HILA’s and a universal joint. The mirror thus has three support points making it a parallel heliostat. This thesis work includes setting up the geometry of the new concept for160 m2reflector area and formulating kinematics and optics equations for calculating the lengths of the actuators and rotations at the universal joint. For structural analysis, the application of wind loads on the structure in the form of pressure is calculated and the structure is designed to satisfy the deflection requirements of 2 mRads at a maximum allowable wind speed of 22 m/s. The symmetric structure is modelled and checked for deflection requirements in Ansys Workbench. The reaction forces are calculated which are then used for topology optimization of the base structure, which is performed Trinitas. When there is an established design for the heliostat with HILA benchmarking is done by designing a scaled-down model for 25 m2 and comparing it with pre-existing results for Az-El type heliostats in literature.

Solar Tower Power Plants with thermal energy storage are a promising technology for dispatchable renewable energy in the near future. Storage integration makes possible to shift the electricity production to more profitable peak hours. Usually two tanks are used to store cold and hot fluids, but this means both higher related investment costs and difficulties during the operation of the variable volume tanks. Another solution can be a single tank thermocline storage in a multi-layered configuration. In such tank both latent and sensible fillers are employed to decrease the related cost by up to 30% and maintain high efficiencies.  The Master thesis hereby presented describes the modelling and implementation of a thermocline-like multi-layered single tank storage in a STPP. The research work presents a comprehensive methodology to determine under which market structures such devices can outperform the more conventional two tank storage systems. As a first step the single tank is modelled by means of differential energy conservation equations. Secondly the tank geometrical design parameters and materials are taken accordingly with the applications taken into consideration. Both the steady state and dynamic models have been implemented in an existing techno-economic tool developed in KTH, in the CSP division (DYESOPT). The results show that under current cost estimates and technical limitations the multi-layered solid PCM storage concept is a better solution when peaking operating strategies are desired, as it is the case for the two-tier South African tariff scheme. In this case the IRR of an optimal designed power plant can be decreased by 2.1%. However, if a continuous operation is considered, the technology is not always preferred over the two tank solution, yet is a cheaper alternative with optimized power plants. As a result the obtained LCOE can be decreased by 2.4%.

In response to the extensive energy demands on national and global levels, concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are designed to harness and convert solar energy to electricity. For such green energy application, robust, reliable and durable materials for CSP constructions are required. The corrosion resistance is among many parameters to consider in these thermalelectrical stations such as for pipes and storage tanks in CSP. In this investigation, the corrosion behavior of AISI 304 stainless steel (18 wt. % Cr, 8 wt. % Ni) with the heat transfer fluid, also known as solar salt, has been examined. The ternary eutectic salt mixture with the composition, 53 wt. % KNO3, 40 wt. % NaNO2, and 7 wt. % NaNO3, that melts at 142°C, has a potential use in CSP as a heat transfer fluid. The solar salt was prepared for this corrosion study from reagent grades of high purity nitrites and nitrates. Samples of AISI 304 stainless steel were sectioned from a sheet stock of the alloy and exposed to solar salt at 530°C in air at 1 atmospheric pressure. After test intervals of 250, 500, and 750 hours in total immersion condition, AISI 304 stainless steel samples have developed a scale of corrosion products made up of multiple oxides. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy with X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy were employed to examine the extent of corrosion and identify the corrosion products. Transmission electron microscopy was used to verify the corrosion products identity via electron diffraction patterns. Oxides of iron were found to be the primary corrosion products in the presence of the molten alkali nitrates-nitrite salt mixture because of the dissolution of the protective chromium oxide (Cr2O3) scale formed on AISI 304 stainless steel coupons. The corrosion scale was uniform in thickness and made up of sodium iron oxide (NaFeO2), iron oxide, hematite (Fe2O3), and chromium-iron oxide (Cr,Fe)2O3 solid solution. The latter was iv found near the AISI 304 stainless steel. This indicates that the scale formed, particularly on the upper layers with presence of sodium iron oxide and iron oxide, hematite, is protective, and forms an effective barrier against penetration of fused solar salt. At the alloy interface with the bulk corrosion scale, the corrosion process induced a compositional modification in the grains located at the interface. There are iron rich and iron depleted grains at the interface if compared to the nominal iron content of the alloy. The mode of attack is identified as uniform at the test temperature of 530°C, showing a parabolic behavior with a parabolic rate constant (Kp) equals to (m2 /sec). By extrapolation, annual corrosion rate is estimated to reach 0.784 mils per year. Corrosion behavior of AISI 304 stainless steel is discussed in terms of thermodynamics and reaction paths.

A desirable feature of concentrated solar power (CSP) with integrated thermal energy storage (TES) unit is to provide electricity in a dispatchable manner during cloud transient and non-daylight hours. Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) offers many advantages such as higher energy storage density, wider range of operating temperature and nearly isothermal heat transfer relative to sensible heat thermal energy storage (SHTES), which is the current standard for trough and tower CSP systems. Despite the advantages mentioned above, LHTES systems performance is often limited by low thermal conductivity of commonly used, low cost phase change materials (PCMs). Research and development of passive heat transfer devices, such as heat pipes (HPs) to enhance the heat transfer in the PCM has received considerable attention. Due to its high effective thermal conductivity, heat pipe can transport large amounts of heat with relatively small temperature difference. The objective of this research is to study the charging and discharging processes of heat pipe-assisted LHTES systems using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental testing to develop a method for more efficient energy storage system design. The results revealed that the heat pipe network configurations and the quantities of heat pipes integrated in a thermal energy storage system have a profound effect on the thermal response of the system. The optimal placement of heat pipes in the system can significantly enhance the thermal performance. It was also found that the inclusion of natural convection heat transfer in the CFD simulation of the system is necessary to have a realistic prediction of a latent heat thermal storage system performance. In addition, the effects of geometrical features and quantity of fins attached to the HPs have been studied. / Mechanical Engineering