Patent ID: 8001960

Claim:
Solar energy collection system comprising: a primary solar receiver and a secondary solar receiver, the secondary solar receiver configured to generate steam using energy from radiation incident thereon, the primary solar receiver receiving the generated steam from the secondary receiver and superheating the steam using energy from radiation incident thereon; a plurality of heliostat-mounted mirrors positioned so that each is able to reflect incident solar radiation at least one of the primary and secondary solar receivers; and a controller configured to control the plurality of heliostat-mounted mirrors, wherein the controller is configured to perform an optimization of a cost function, which is responsive to a predicted temperature uniformity of the primary receiver, by dynamically assigning heliostat-mounted mirrors to respective aiming points on the primary receiver, and to control at least one of the heliostat-mounted mirrors to switch from a respective first aiming point on a surface of the primary solar receiver to a different aiming point based on the optimization of the cost function such that at least a predefined thermal profile across the surface of the primary receiver is achieved, and wherein the controller allows for at least some of the heliostat-mounted mirrors to switch between aiming points on the primary solar receiver and aiming points on the secondary solar receiver.