Computation of glint, glare, and solar irradiance distribution
AssigneeSandia Corporation
InventorsClifford Kuofei Ho, Siri Sahib Singh Khalsa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Described herein are technologies pertaining to computing the solar irradiance distribution on a surface of a receiver in a concentrating solar power system or glint/glare emitted from a reflective entity. At least one camera captures images of the Sun and the entity of interest, wherein the images have pluralities of pixels having respective pluralities of intensity values. Based upon the intensity values of the pixels in the respective images, the solar irradiance distribution on the surface of the entity or glint/glare corresponding to the entity is computed.
Claims6
A system, comprising:
- a solar radiation receiver;
- a plurality of mirrored reflectors that are positioned to concentrate solar radiation onto the solar radiation receiver;
- a computing apparatus that receives:
- a first electronic image of the solar radiation receiver that comprises a first plurality of pixels having a first plurality of values;
- and
- a second electronic image of the Sun that comprises a second plurality of pixels having a second plurality of values, wherein the computing apparatus comprises computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of the computing apparatus, generates values that are indicative of solar irradiance on a surface of the solar radiation receiver at positions corresponding to the first plurality of pixels based at least in part upon the first plurality of values and the second plurality of values.
Computer-readable data storage comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising:
- receiving a first electronic image of the Sun that comprises a first plurality of pixels having a first plurality of values;
- receiving a second electronic image of a reflective surface that comprises a second plurality of pixels having a second plurality of values;
- summing values corresponding to pixels that map to the Sun in the first electronic image to generate a first summation value;
- converting the first summation value to a first measure of solar radiation power per unit of area;
- summing values corresponding to pixels that map to the reflective surface to generate a second summation value;
- and
- computing an amount of solar irradiance received by a human eye based at least in part upon the first summation value, the first measure of solar radiation power, and the second summation value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.