Range of motion study for two different sun-tracking methods in the application of heliostat field

Since the beginning of the history in the application of heliostats, the sun-tracking method is generally implemented using the Azimuth-Elevation method. Although Spinning-Elevation method was first proposed by Ries et al. and then popularized by Chen et al., it is still not widely applied in a large scale solar energy application especially in central tower system. This paper will study in more detail the implementation of the Spinning-Elevation method in the central tower system for a comparison to that of the typical Azimuth-Elevation method. The annual accumulated angles of the two different sun-tracking methods were analyzed in details for both the cases of a single heliostat and the heliostat field. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved