Advanced Development and Testing of the SunRing Heliostat

The Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Office has set a 2030 cost target of 5 ¢/kWh for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants. The solar field represents the largest cost in a CSP tower plant (30-40% of total installed cost) with commercial heliostats having installed costs of approximately $140/m2. Solar Dynamics (SD) proposes to develop and test an advanced version of our SunRing™ heliostat that reduces its total installed and proves its bankability for commercial installations. The advanced SunRing heliostat will have an installed cost 40% lower than current commercial heliostats. Phase 1 of the project focuses on developing cost saving advances in the SunRing’s novel azimuth drive moving from a conceptual to a final design supported by physical component testing. Extended outdoor testing of the baseline SunRing will also occur providing additional experience with the overall azimuth drive design approach. Phase 1 will be followed by commercialization steps in Phase 2 where the SunRing heliostat is transitioned from a Technology Readiness Level of 5 to 7. This is accomplished with 1-year of outdoor performance testing by a USA National Laboratory. Additionally, lifetime performance testing will occur on the SunRing’s drives. The focus of Phase 2 is to de-risk the technology and provide comfort in the SunRing’s ability to perform in commercial solar projects. This is critical to gain the investment needed to deploy the SunRing at commercial scale. Our team is well suited to propose this project. SD has built and deployed the baseline SunRing heliostat. In addition, SD personnel have led development, design, and operations of some of the largest CSP power plants in the world.