A Survey of Electric Drives for Solar Tracking Control of Concentrated Solar Power Heliostats

Shen Zhang, Abdulaziz M. Qwbaiban, Thomas G. Habetler

Abstract: This paper aims at presenting a thorough literature survey on existing electric drives developed for solar tracking systems in concentrated solar power plants (CSP) plants. To start with, a brief background on CSP and its low-cost initiatives are presented, followed by introducing specific requirements for the electric motor-gearbox system. In addition, existing drives adopting different types of electric motors are systematically reviewed. Finally, a comparative study of different commercial drives reveals that the drive cost per unit area and its cost share of the entire heliostat will increase with heliostats going smaller, thereby indicating more potentials and opportunities to further optimize electric drives and cut down the cost for heliostats with a small mirror size and better exploit sunlight for the maximum energy yield for solar tracking control.