A detailed account of calculation of shading and blocking factor of a heliostat field.

The shading and blocking factor plays a significant role in the design of a heliostat field. It is the most computationally expensive task during the optimization process of a heliostat field. Over time, different methods have been developed to calculate the extent of the optical losses associated with shading and blocking. This paper focuses on the famous center point projection method and its implementation using Matlab. This work provides detailed procedures from the perspective of programming and simulation of central receiver systems. The underlying assumptions, the algorithm's strengths, and weaknesses are highlighted. The procedure and simulation parameters will help in developing optimization algorithms for designing high-efficiency heliostat fields. A dense radial staggered heliostat field is used for testing the performance of the algorithm. The field efficiency is calculated at different design points. The results show that the shading loss of the field changes with time, whereas there is negligible variation in the blocking loss. The instantaneous shading loss of a dense radial staggered field on December 21, noontime is 2.12%, whereas the blocking loss is 1.52%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]