Concentrated solar flux modeling in solar power towers with a 3D objects-atmosphere hybrid system to consider atmospheric and environmental gains

This article presents a realistic and novel method to estimate the solar radiant flux collected by the receiver of a solar power tower (SPT) system, taking into account the detailed atmospheric radiative transfer. It describes how an atmospheric radiative transfer Monte Carlo code is modified to solve the radiative transfer both in the atmosphere and within the concentrating system consisting of the heliostat field and the receiver. To validate the geometric modeling of a complete SPT (624 heliostats with 24 facets) as well as the estimation of its optical efficiency (both independent of the atmosphere), a comparison with the reference ray-tracing code “Solstice” is presented for two times of the day, two solar disk half-angles, and two heliostat surface slope errors. This new model allows the estimation of not only the optical losses but also, as in Moulana (2019), the gains due to atmospheric and environmental contributions i.e., radiant flux from circumsolar, aerosol scattering, ground reflection, etc. Annual average results (with a numerical uncertainty less than 0.01%) under clear sky conditions (without clouds) show that the gains are not negligible and could reach up to 0.414 MW (1.08% of the radiant flux collected by the receiver) for a relatively small SPT located in a desert area. •The method to consider 3D objects in a scattering atmosphere is described.•Two tracking modes to account for atmospheric and environmental gains are presented.•Comparisons with a reference ray-tracing code without the atmosphere are shown.•First results with the atmosphere show that the annual gains can exceed 1%.