CHARACTERIZATION TESTING OF A SOLAR MOLTEN SALT CENTRAL RECEIVER.

A solar central receiver was designed, constructed, and tested in a program funded by the U. S. Department of Energy. The receiver tested is an advanced 5 MWt cavity receiver that uses molten salt as the working fluid. The receiver was solar tested during a six-month period at the Central Receiver Test Facility in Albuquerque, NM. The purpose of the testing was to characterize the operational capabilities of the receiver under a number of solar operating and stand-by conditions. This testing consisted of initial check-out of the systems, followed by steady-state performance, transient receiver operation, receiver operation in clouds, receiver thermal loss testing, receiver start-up operation, and overnight thermal conditioning tests. The results of this testing are presented in this paper.