Design of a Solar Power Tower Plant in Adrar, Algeria: Inspired by the Surrounding Heliostat Field in Almería, Spain

Abstract

This study presents an innovated model for computing the optical efficiency of circular heliostat fields, which was validated against Collado’s model and applied to the Adrar solar tower site. The model accounts for cosine effect and atmospheric attenuation, while other optical components are assumed constant. Simulations were performed for a heliostat field with 17 rows and a blocking factor of 0.95, under clear-sky conditions. Results show that the proposed model yields a slightly higher average efficiency compared to Collado’s model. For the Adrar site, the average optical efficiency on the spring equinox increases from 77.77% for the previous 130 m tower to 79.08% for a 160 m modified tower, highlighting the influence of tower height on field performance. The spatial distribution of efficiency indicates that heliostats near the north side of the tower achieve the highest efficiency, while those at the south side are less efficient due to longer reflection paths. The results demonstrate that the innovated model is a reliable tool for design optimization of solar tower fields under site-specific conditions.