This paper proposes a new hybrid least squares support vector machine and artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC-LS-SVM) for multi-hour ahead forecasting of global solar radiation data. The framework performs on training the LS-SVM model by means of ABC using measured data. ABC is developed for free parameters optimization for LS-SVM model in a search space so as to boost the forecasting performance. The developed ABC-LS-SVM approach is verified on an hourly scale on a database of five years of measurements. The measured data was collected from 2013-2017 at the Applied Research Unit for Renewable Energy (URAER) in Ghardaia, south of Algeria. Several combinations of input data have been tested to model the desired output. Forecasting results of 12th hour ahead global solar radiation with ABC-LS-SVM model led to an RMSE error equal to 116.22 (Wh/m2) and correlation coefficient R2 = 94.3 (%), and RMSE=117.73 (Wh/m2) and correlation coefficient R2 = 92.42 (%) with classical LS-SVM. The achieved results reveal that the proposed hybridization scheme achieves high performance over the stand-alone LS-SVM.

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The present study focuses on the optimization of solar tower power plant heliostat field by considering different heliostat shapes including rectangular, square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, and circular heliostat shapes. The optimization is carried out using an in-house developed code-based MATLAB program. The developed in-house code is validated first on a wellknown PS10 Solar Thermal Power plant having rectangular heliostats shape and the resulting yearly unweighted heliostat field efficiency of about 64.43% could be obtained. The optimized PS10 heliostat field using different heliostat shapes showed that the circular and octagon heliostat shapes provide better efficiency with minimum land area. The yearly efficiency is increased from 69.65% for the rectangular heliostat shape to 70.96% and 71% for the octagon and circular shapes, respectively. In addition, the calculated field area (land area) is reduced for the case of circular and octagon heliostat shapes with a gain of about 11.10% and 10.93% (about 42.0436 × 10 3 and 41.4036 × 10 3 m 2), respectively, in comparison with the PS10 field area.