{"title":"Heliostat orientation system using a PLC based robot manipulator","authors":"A. Chaib, M. Kesraoui, E. Kechadi","doi":"10.1109/EVER.2013.6521575","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Solar energy reaching a given surface depends directly on sun's orientation and sensor's position. Concentrated solar power systems are using sun-tracking heliostats to reflect maximum solar heat to a thermal receiver mounted atop a central power tower. The focused heat boils water within the thermal receiver and produces steam to supply a turbine for power generation. Since sun's rays are constantly variable throughout a day one should constantly change the position of the heliostat using an orientation system. First, a program for calculating the daily, monthly and yearly position of the sun for any earth place is developed using MATLAB software. Then an orientation system based on a robot manipulator in order to allow the heliostat to move for sun's radiation tracking is proposed and described. The results show that this system allows accurate positioning and gives a higher solar energy yield in comparison to a fixed one. Each heliostat will be equipped with this system. For accurate and instantaneous automatic control of the robot manipulator a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is used. Satisfying simulation results have been obtained.","PeriodicalId":386323,"journal":{"name":"2013 Eighth International Conference and Exhibition on Ecological Vehicles and Renewable Energies (EVER)","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2013-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"9","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"2013 Eighth International Conference and Exhibition on Ecological Vehicles and Renewable Energies (EVER)","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EVER.2013.6521575","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 9
Abstract
Solar energy reaching a given surface depends directly on sun's orientation and sensor's position. Concentrated solar power systems are using sun-tracking heliostats to reflect maximum solar heat to a thermal receiver mounted atop a central power tower. The focused heat boils water within the thermal receiver and produces steam to supply a turbine for power generation. Since sun's rays are constantly variable throughout a day one should constantly change the position of the heliostat using an orientation system. First, a program for calculating the daily, monthly and yearly position of the sun for any earth place is developed using MATLAB software. Then an orientation system based on a robot manipulator in order to allow the heliostat to move for sun's radiation tracking is proposed and described. The results show that this system allows accurate positioning and gives a higher solar energy yield in comparison to a fixed one. Each heliostat will be equipped with this system. For accurate and instantaneous automatic control of the robot manipulator a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is used. Satisfying simulation results have been obtained.