Development of a Heliostat for a Solar Tower Power Plant

Since renewable energies are gaining significance, the development of efficient devices is vital to make them competitive against the current used sources of energies. The present paper contains the development of a Heliostat for a Solar Tower Plant, the description of its elements as well as the Finite Element Analysis that was taken into account to design the different mechanisms that form the heliostat. The main innovation in the design is the modularity of the whole device, the simplification of the movement mechanisms and a high resistance under severe wind conditions. According to the Finite Element Method analysis the heliostat is able to withstand a wind speed up to 34 m/s, it accomplishes the modularity desired but still present backlash issues in the azimuth movement. The next step in the design is to reduce this resultant backlash with the modification of the azimuthal mechanism, to employ another transmission method different from gearboxes, and to compensate the inaccuracy within the dynamic control system.