Ivanpah’s First Heliostat
After spending the summer commissioning the equipment that will be used to assemble the 173,500 heliostats required for the Ivanpah solar fields, a major milestone was reached last week with the assembly of the very first heliostat for the Ivanpah SEGS.
Each heliostat is comprised of two mirrors the size of a garage door that are affixed to a large steel frame. Once mounted on the pylons in the solar field, the heliostats will be connected to a tracking drive, which will let the mirrors track the sun in two directions and reflect it towards the tower’s solar receiver. The heliostat is directed by BrightSource’s proprietary software operating within the operations center.
Eventually, the team’s goal is to reach a production rate of 500 heliostats assembled each day! Once the equipment is ready for full-scale deployment, the production lines will operate two shifts each day to meet this ambitious target.