HelioCon Annual Workshop
The Heliostat Consortium for Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power (HelioCon) hosts an annual workshop to discuss current CSP technologies and plan future advancements in the CSP industry. Read more about the HelioCon research presented at our previous workshops below.
2024 HelioCon Annual Workshop
The Heliostat Consortium for Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power (HelioCon) is hosting the annual workshop during the ASME-ES Conference July 16-17 in Anaheim, CA. Learn about our latest achievements and future goals.
- Summary Session: Click here for the agenda
| Randy Brost | Optical Effects of Temperature Change for Heliostat Mirrors |
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| Devon Kesseli | Demonstration and Automation of Reflected Target Optical Measurement for Heliostats | |
| Yu Zhou | Heliostat Consortium: Scoping Optical Metrology Tools for Heliostat Evaluation and Building a Power Tower Concentrating Solar Power Plant Database | |
| Tucker Farrell | A Non-Intrusive Optical (NIO) Approach to Characterize in-situ Optical Performance of Heliostats: Field Testing and Tracking Error Estimates | |
| Kyle Sperber | Moving NIO to Commercial Ready |
| Matthew Emes | Impact of Heliostat Array Density on Boundary Layer Characteristics and Wind Loading |
| Matthew Emes | Effects of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Turbulence on Single Heliostat Wind Load Coefficients: Comparison of Field Measurements With Wind Tunnel Experiments |
| Brooke J. Stanislawski | Tracking Error at an Operational Concentrating Solar Power Plant |
| Ulrike Egerer | Dynamic Wind Loading on CSP Collectors: Insights from NREL's Measurements in Operational Parabolic Trough and Heliostat Fields |
| Matthew Emes | Wind Tunnel Study on the Effects of Ground Clearance Ratio on Heliostat Dynamic Wind Loads |
| Alex Zolan | Forecasting Soiling-Related O&M Costs for Concentrating Solar Power Tower Plants |
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| Jeremy Sment | Design of Experiment to Evaluate the Beneficial Effects of Heliostat Shading on Desert Ecosystems | |
| Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou | Heliocomm: A Wireless Communications Autonomous System for Concentrated Solar Power Fields | |
| Kenneth Armijo | HelioCon Closed Loop Control: Extremum Seeking Control Small-Scale and Single Heliostat Testing |
| Kyle Kattke | SunRing: Mirror Array Optimization and Prototyping |
| Ye Wang | Using an equivalent slope error to quantify different types of optical errors of a heliostat |
| Matthew Muller | Performance and Durability Testing of Advanced Composite Mirror Facets |
| Chad Augustine | Impact of Temperature on Solar Industrial Process Heat Costs |
| Rebecca Mitchell | Modeling Receiver Flux of Commercial Power Tower Concentrating Solar Power Plants Using Ray Tracing: Benchmark Cases for Validation and Comparison of Ray-Trace Tools |
| Rebecca Mitchell | Heliostat Consortium: Updates on Resource, Training, and Education Development for the Concentrating Solar Power Community |
| Hameed Metghalchi | An Educational Program on Concentrated Solar Power and Heliostats for Power Generation and Industrial Process |
2023 HelioCon Annual Workshop
The Heliostat Consortium for Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power (HelioCon) hosted its annual workshop during the ASME-ES Conference July 10-12 in Washington D.C. During the summary session portion of the workshop, the HelioCon team provided technical work highlights, introduced recently awarded RFP projects, and led a discussion on progress made on gaps identified in the heliostat roadmap report as well as future goals. During technical sessions, researchers presented information about specific HelioCon topic areas and initiatives.
Heliostat Consortium Track Chairs: Jeremy Sment and Alex Zolan
5-11 Heliostat Consortium 1:
Tuesday, July 11, 2023, 11am – 12:30 pm - Chair: Mark Mehos
| Margaret Gordon | An Overview on HelioCon: An International Heliostat Consortium to Advance Concentrating Solar-Thermal Technologies (Link) |
| Guangdong Zhu | Status Update on Metrology and Standard in the Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon) (Link) |
| Matthew Muller | HelioCon: Evaluation of Composite Materials for Heliostat Cost Reduction (Link) |
| Rebecca Mitchell | Heliostat Consortium: Update on Resource, Training, and Education Development and Women+ in Concentrating Solar (Link) |
5-12 Heliostat Consortium 2:
Wednesday, July 12, 2023, 9:00-10:30am - Chairs: Chad Augustine
| Kenneth Armijo | NSTTF HelioCon Wireless Closed-Loop Controls Test Bed Development (Link) |
| Alex Zolan | A Performance Forecasting Framework for Concentrated Solar Power Tower Systems (Link) |
| Randy Brost | Extending Deflectometry Metrology Capability for Concentrating Solar Power (Link) |
| Devon Kesseli | Characterizing Heliostats at a Commercial Scale With Non-Intrusive Optics (Link) |
5-13 Heliostat Consortium 3:
Wednesday, July 12, 2023, 11:00am-12:30pm - Chair: Margaret Gordon
| Jeremy Sment | Status Quo of Heliostat Field Deployment Processes (Link) |
| Chad Augustine | Heliostat Field Optimization for Power Tower Solar Industrial Process Heat Applications (Link) |
| Randy Brost | High-Speed Assessment of Heliostat Fields Without Disrupting Operations (Link) |
| Tucker Farrell | An Indoor Reflected Target Optical Measurement System for Concentrated Solar Power Mirrors (Link) |
5-2 Metrology in CSP:
Monday, July 10, 2023, 11:00am-12:30pm - Chair: Randy Brost
| Ulrike Egerer | Wind Loading on Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors: Wind and Structural Loads Measurements in an Operational Powerplant (Link) |
5-5 Solar Receiver Design:
Tuesday, July 11, 2023, 9:00am-10:30am - Chair: Krutika Appaswamy
| Brooke Stanislawski | Assessing the Optical Performance Impact of Tracking Error in an Operational Concentrating Solar Power Plant Using Monte Carlo Ray-Tracing Simulation (Link) |
| Rebecca Mitchell | Modeling Receiver Flux of Commercial Power Tower Concentrating Solar Power Plants Using Ray Tracing: A Round-Robin Comparison of Soltrace, Solstice, and Tiesol (Link) |
Summary Session Wednesday, July 12, 2023 Madison Hotel, Room: Potomac A
| Time | Agenda Item | Speaker/Facilitator |
|---|---|---|
| 12:30 – 1:45 pm | Lunch served at conference |
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| 1:15 – 1:25 pm | Welcome | Margaret Gordon |
| 1:25 – 2:05 pm | Highlights from Topic Area technical work | Guangdong Zhu (NREL work) – 15 mins (Link) Margaret Gordon (Sandia work) – 15 mins (Link) John Pye (ASTRI progress) – 10 mins (Link) |
| 2:05 – 3:15 pm | Intro to awarded RFP projects | RFP Project PIs (plan 8 min each)
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| 3:15 – 3:35 pm | Break | Margaret Gordon |
| 3:35 – 5:15 pm | Program Discussion with All: Progress on Roadmap Gaps and Looking Ahead | Margaret Gordon and Mark Mehos |
| 5:15 – 6:15 pm | (Excuse PIs, topic area leads) Discuss project reviews with BoA | Mark Mehos |