Optimization of Heliostat Aim Point Selection for Central Receiver Systems Based on the Ant Colony Optimization Metaheuristic

The optimization of the selection of heliostat aim points in a solar power tower plant with the objective of an increased overall efficiency represents a NP-hard optimization problem of high dimension. This paper presents a universal procedure for the purpose of aim point optimization based on the ant colony optimization metaheuristic that uses the principles of swarm intelligence. The applicability of the developed aim point optimization procedure to central receiver systems is demonstrated on a test case, for which the electrical power of a concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) receiver is maximized for a selected operating point. The example of a CPV receiver was chosen due to its nonlinear and non-monotonous dependency of efficiency and flux density. It is shown that the optimization result is very close to the theoretical maximum.