Solar Farm Optimization

Post-Oil Energy Technology After the Age of Fossil Fuels 

If the successful bidder is a PV supplier, some of the DC electricity will be directly used to generate hydrogen by electrolysis. This would not only save the cost of DC-to-AC conversion, but also would lower the cost of energy transportation because it costs less to transport LH2 than electricity. 

The methods for finding the optimum collector positions for the individual collector will use the author s minimum shadow area strategy. At the higher level of overall solar farm optimization, the herding optimizer algorithms will also be used to identify individual units that might be defective or to correct their position, starting with the collector that is furthest from the optimum. 

The minimum size of the hot oil storage tanks (T1 and T2) is based on the requirement to provide energy for one night, though preferably it should be for several days of unfavorable weather conditions. The hot oil system is a closed one, and an expansion tank is provided (not shown) to accommodate the thermal expansion as the oil temperature changes. Until a storage tank is full of hot oil, the temperature rises with the level in the tank and, therefore, the cold oil is taken from and returned to the bottom of the active tank, while the hot oil is taken from and returned to the top of the tank. 

Each row of collectors is provided with a balancing valve (BV-1), which is throttled by its temperature rise (or discharge temperature) controller (ATC- 

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One important aspect of solar farm optimization is the tracking of the sun s trajectory while concentrating the sunlight, so that the mirror reflectors or troughs will be correctly rotated around both axes while concentrating the solar radiation. In order to maximize the collector efficiency, solar and position detectors (Sections 3.15 and 3.17 [Chapter 3]) are used. Some of the tools of positioning include the use of machine vision (Section 3.12) and a variety of positioning devices (Section 3.15). 

The optimization of the solar farm operation is assisted by the automatic switching between five equipment configurations. These configurations are a function of the supply and demand for solar heat energy ... 

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