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Tonatiuh is an open source, freeware, Monte Carlo ray tracer suitable for CST applications, and is currently under further development to to increase and improve its functionalities. Work has recently been performed to implement the following functionalities: a flux distribution calculation utility; materials with incidence angle dependent optical properties; and the ability to import 3D geometries from CAD files. This paper provides a detailed account of these new functionalities, and the tests performed to establish their correct implementation in the new software version, Tonatiuh v 2.2.3.

The aim of this paper is the presentation of a study of heliostat field layout performances for a CSP plant, based on the central receiver technology, using different algorithms for layout generation. The purpose is to perform a detailed comparison of the layout performances in terms of efficiency and energy yield to determine the algorithms benefits and drawbacks at various scenarios as first step on the optimization of the heliostat layouts designs. The layouts compared are generated using a genetic optimization process and using different objective functions for each studied case. Results show that new biomimetic algorithms are a good alternative to classical algorithm patterns based on the radial staggered method. However, these results are only valid for the analyzed cases.

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