Solar Concentrating Research Facilities

40kW High-Flux Solar Furnace

PSI's solar furnace consists of a 120 m² sun-tracking flat heliostat on-axis with an 8.5 m-diameter paraboloidal concentrator. It delivers up to 40 kW at peak concentration ratios exceeding 5000 suns (1 sun = 1 kW/m²). The solar flux intensity can be further augmented to up to 10'000 suns by using CPC secondary concentrators. A Venetian blind type shutter located between the heliostat and the concentrator controls the power input to the reactor.

Technical information: Haueter P., Seitz T., Steinfeld A., "A New High-Flux Solar Furnace for High-Temperature Thermochemical Research", ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 121, pp. 77-80, 1999.

50kW High-Flux Solar Simulator

PSI's High-Flux Solar Simulator (HFSS), comprises an array of ten 15 kW_e high-pressure Xenon arcs, each closed-coupled with truncated ellipsoidal specular reflectors of common focus. It provides an external source of intense thermal radiation that closely approximates the heat transfer characteristics of highly concentrating solar systems, such as solar towers and solar furnaces; yet it enables experimental work under controlled steady and unsteady conditions for reproducible measurements and model validation, regardless of weather conditions. Each Xe-arc can be switched on and off individually, allowing for adjustment of the radiative power input into the chemical reactor. The radiation flux distribution in the focal plane is measured optically by recording the image on a Lambertian target, acquired by a fast CCD camera equipped with optical filters. This facility is able to deliver a total radiative power of 50 kW with a peak radiative flux exceeding 10,000 suns. The total radiative power intercepted by a 6-cm diameter circular target – representing the reactor's aperture – is 20 kW, and the average radiative power flux over this aperture is more than 7,000 suns. Such high radiation fluxes correspond to stagnation blackbody temperatures exceeding 3300 K. Further coupling with a tandem 3D-CPC may augment the power flux concentration by approximately 90%. Thus, PSI's HFSS features the world's highest performance level of combined radiative power and power flux.

 

Technical information: Petrasch J., Coray P., Meier A., Brack M., Haeberling P., Wuillemin D., Steinfeld A., "A 50-kW 11,000-suns novel high-flux solar simulator based on an array of Xenon arc lamps", ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 129, No. 4, pp. 405-411, 2007.

SFERA – Solar Facilities for the European Research Area

SFERA aims at giving researchers free access to state of the art high flux solar concentrating research facilities located in Europe and the Mediterranean region. Present partners include CIEMAT Spain, CNRS France, PSI Switzerland, WEIZMANN Israel and ENEA Italy.

A selection of the available facilities is shown in the following images.

1 MW_th solar furnace at Promes Odeillo, France

7 MW_th solar tower at PSA, Spain

3 MW_th “beam down” solar tower at Weizmann, Israel

52 kW_th parabolic concentrator in Odeillo, France

Further information on the facilities and how to apply for access can be found at the SFERA research project homepage.