**Published at Renewable Energy – A New Heliostat Field Optimal Design Strategy for Deformable Petal Hybrid Layout of Concentrated Solar Power via Multi-Algorithm Filtering**
**Abstract**
A novel optimization method has been developed to design high-performance deformable petal heliostat fields for concentrated solar power (CSP). The petal field is divided into distinct sectors, each designed to achieve a balance between pattern orderliness and flexibility. A suitable high-dimensional optimization algorithm was selected from a pool of 129 different algorithms using multi-algorithm filtering.
To validate the proposed method, four petal field layouts (campo-only, spiral-only, and their north-south combinations) were tested on the Gemasolar-20MW and Haixi-50MW fields. Two strategies for optimizing annual optical efficiency were employed: maximizing the whole-field (Strategy 1) and maximizing the screened high-efficiency field (Strategy 2). For both heliostat fields, Strategy 2 demonstrated an improvement in annual efficiency of approximately 0.9% compared to Strategy 1, regardless of the layout, underscoring the significance of a target-oriented optimization strategy.
When compared to the original Gemasolar-20MW field, the four layouts designed under Strategy 2 achieved a relative annual efficiency increase of over 6%, with the campo-only layout attaining the highest efficiency of 60.55%. In comparison to the original Haixi-50MW field, Strategy 2 resulted in a relative increase of over 9%, peaking at 60.25% with the campo-only layout. Notably, the optimized efficiencies of the various designs were nearly identical, suggesting a potential efficiency upper limit under the same conditions. This method effectively enhances the design of petal fields, providing valuable insights for heliostat field design and high-dimensional engineering optimization.
**Citation**: Xin-Yuan Tang, Wei-Wei Yang, Jia-Chen Li, Lan-Xin Liang, Yi-Wan Lin, Ya-Ling He, *A New Heliostat Field Optimal Design Strategy for Deformable Petal Hybrid Layout of Concentrated Solar Power via Multi-Algorithm Filtering*, Renewable Energy, Volume 243, 2025, 122612, ISSN 0960-1481, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2025.122612](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2025.122612).
Original article by NenPower, If reposted, please credit the source: https://nenpower.com/blog/new-optimization-strategy-enhances-design-of-deformable-petal-hybrid-heliostat-fields-for-concentrated-solar-power/
