Synlight - A new facility for large-scale testing in CSP and solar chemistry

Abstract

As of now the worldwide solar research community has a unique new tool: Synlight is a high-flux solar simulator of a new performance category. It bridges the gap between laboratory scale tests and demonstration, and offers large-scale testing opportunities for up to three independently operating test campaigns. Following the commissioning and opening in March, 2017, the facility has been validated recently. The gained results met or exceeded the expectations from simulation and prototype. In particular, solar radiation powers of up to 310kW with a simultaneous peak flux of 12.5MW/m² could be measured.

A Cost-Effective Open Volumetric Air Receiver Design Based on Free Floating Stackable Absorber Modules

“…Due to the inhomogeneous air outlet temperature at cup level, no reliable experimental confirmation of the receiver efficiency could be obtained during the CAPTure project's experimental activity, unfortunately. Therefore, additional high-temperature tests have been performed at the Synlight facility [7] at DLR (thanks to SFERA-III framework) with one single absorber module (≈ 14 x 14 cm of aperture) [8]. A tailored transportable thermal loop has been designed and constructed (Fig.…”

“…In particular, the air is forced through the absorber sample (1), the receiver pipe (2), the air/water heat exchanger (4) and the flow meter (5). The absorber sample (1) is irradiated by concentrated light of several xenon lamps (7) with elliptical concentrators (8) [7]. The heat exchanger and the receiver unit are insulated (3) in order to keep thermal losses negligible.…”

Experimental investigation of the applicability of a 250 kW ceria receiver/reactor for solar thermochemical hydrogen generation

“…It consists of 149 modules equipped with a short-arc xenon lamp, normally used for cinema projection, with an electric power of 7 kW and a radiative power of 2.7 kW th . Each module has an ellipsoidal reflector, which focuses the light generated by the lamp at a distance of 8 m. Three moveable axes allow a precise setup of the module position, which includes the distance to the test object as well as the inclination and rotation angles [15,16]. Furthermore, if necessary the focal position of the lamp inside the reflector can be modified by controlling the concentration ratio.…”

Scaling effects of a novel solar receiver for a micro gas-turbine based solar dish system

“…A recent review of solar simulators [25] showed that 26 HFSSs of various designs were in operation in late 2016 with 7 of them capable of providing a radiative power of more than 15 kW and 3 capable of providing more than 30 kW at the focal plane. In early 2017 another HFSS was completed offering radiative power of up to 310 kW [26]. With the vast majority of the operational HFSSs delivering a radiative power below 30 kW [25] the main challenge of HFSS testing is caused by the fact that the radiative power delivered is lower than the power available at a full-scale CSP system.…”