Advances in simulation tools for solar power towers: A comparative review of optical, thermal, and system-level models

Abstract

Solar power towers (SPTs) are a leading concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, utilizing heliostat fields to direct solar radiation onto a central receiver. Accurate simulation tools are vital for optimizing these systems. This review offers a structured and comparative analysis of simulation platforms used in optical, thermal, and system-level modeling. Tools such as SolTrace, Tonatiuh, and DELSOL are reviewed for their ray-tracing accuracy and computational trade-offs. Thermal and CFD tools, including OpenFOAM, ANSYS Fluent, and COMSOL, are evaluated for heat transfer modeling. System-level tools, such as SAM, TRNSYS, and Dymola, are assessed for techno-economic analysis and control strategy development. Rather than relying on standardized test cases, the comparison adopts consistent evaluation metrics such as modeling scope, integration ability, computational efficiency, and validation status, derived from field-tested case studies and empirical benchmarks. The review highlights that while several tools demonstrate high accuracy and real-world validation, persistent gaps remain in multi-domain interoperability and real-time modeling. Key contributions include a hybrid simulation framework integrating ray tracing and CFD for receiver modeling, a performance-based classification of tools grounded in validated case studies, and a decision-making roadmap for tool selection based on design context. Future directions include AI-based heliostat aiming using IUPSO, surrogate models for heat transfer prediction, and object-oriented digital twin architectures built on SolarTherm with real-time sensor integration to improve predictive accuracy, scalability, and deployment readiness.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

solar power tower (SPT) / concentrated solar power (CSP) / optical simulation / thermal simulation / system-level simulation

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