A User's Manual for DELSOL3 - prod.sandia.gov - Sandia National ...

GLOSSARY
Absorber: The portion of the receiver that absorbs radiant energy.
Attenuation Loss: The loss of solar power by absorption and scattering as a
result of atmospheric conditions between the concentrator and the receiver.
Beam Alignment: The adjustment of individual mirror facets of a heliostat
to place their images in the desired relationships to one another.
Beam Characterization System: A video-based system for the rapid and
automatic measurement and characterization of flux delivered by any single helio-
stat onto a target.
Blocking: The interception of part of the reflected sunlight from one helio-
stat by the backside of a second heliostat.
Capacity Factor: Energy production in a given time interval (generally one
year) divided by the energy that would have been generated if the plant had op-
erated at its full capacity for the same time interval.
Cavity Receiver: A solar energy receiver in the shape of a cavity in which
the solar radiation enters through one or more openings (apertures) and is ab-
sorbed by interior heat exchanger surfaces.
Central Receiver Sys tern: See Solar Thermal Central Receiver Power
System.
Cloud Cover: That portion of the sky cover which is obscured by clouds,
usually measured in tenths of sky covered.
Cogeneration: The production of electricity or mechanical energy, or both,
in conjunction with industrial process heat.
Concentration Ratio: The ratio of the reflected radiant power impinging
on a surface to the radiant power incident, upon the reflecting surface.
Concentrator Efficiency: The ratio of the energy collected by a heliostat
field to the radiant energy that strikes it under steady-state conditions (includes
cosine loss).
Concentrator Subsystem: An array of heliostats, included the wiring and
controls, that redirects the available insolation onto a receiver.
Cosine Loss: The reduction of the projected heliostat area visible to the sun
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