Airborne characterization of the Andasol 3 solar field

Kurzfassung

The solar-thermal parabolic trough power plant Andasol 3 (AS3) near Granada/Spain operated by Marquesado Solar SL (MQS) was commissioned in autumn 2011. The installed capacity of 49.9 MWel in combination with thermal energy storage (TES) capacity for 7.5 hours at full load results in a net annual energy production of more than 165 GWh1 (Dinter and Gonzalez 2014). The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has developed a tool for airborne characterization of entire parabolic trough plants. The approach called QFlySURVEY uses an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a high resolution digital still camera and delivers effective mirror slope deviation and the absolute orientation of the optical axis of each solar collector element (SCE). In order to validate and demonstrate QFlySURVEY, a comprehensive measurement campaign was undertaken in the AS3 power plant in cooperation with MQS between 2016-10-24 and 2016-11-14. The main objective was to demonstrate the advantages of airborne solar field characterization in terms of rapid data acquisition, negligible interference with plant operation, and without the need of any additional installation of measurement equipment in the solar field. QFlySURVEY provides accurate quantitative measures of optical performance of the solar field and supports the maximization of the thermal energy collected from the solar field by identifying low performing areas and the causes for optical losses.