Modelling of a 400m steam based Paraboloidal Dish concentrator for solar thermal power production

The Australian National University has a 400m Paraboloidal dish solar concentrator system, informally named “the Big Dish” that produces superheated steam via a receiver mounted monotube boiler. The system, (shown in Figure 1) which is the worlds largest was constructed in 1994. This paper describes the results of the latest experimental tests plus associated system performance modelling. The system was modelled in the context of feasibility study and performance assessment for multiple dishes, central generation Rankine cycle power plants using the transient simulation package TRNSYS. The new custom components of the TRNSYS deck file constructed for this study are the Paraboloidal dish, the steam generating cavity receiver, steam line and steam engine. These component models are based on transient model using the energy balance equation and the empirical derived formulation. Validation test were performed by comparing with the latest experimental results measured with a 1-minute time step.