Abstract
Concentration errors critically affect the performance of solar concentrator, so their evaluation is important to the concentrated solar power technology. However, the evaluation is very challenging because error sources are various and not easy to measure individually. Therefore, the integrated effect of concentration errors is often more interesting and useful for large-scale applications. In the present work, we analytically investigate and classify various concentration error sources and then explain that the effect of various concentration errors can be represented in terms of a root mean square value of reflector surface slope error. We present an indirect approach to assessing the reflector surface slope error by comparing solar flux measurement data with modeling calculations. We apply the approach for solar furnaces with different thermal capacity and investigate its advantages and disadvantages.
