General Sun Tracking Formula for Heliostats With Arbitrarily Oriented Axes

Abstract

The most general form of solar tracking formulae of an arbitrarily oriented heliostat toward an arbitrarily located target on the Earth is presented. With this complete solution, the used azimuth-elevation, spinning-elevation tracking formula, etc., are the special cases of it. Therefore, more application may be sought out for many individual cases in solar engineering. The new form of tracking solution could bring changes in the geometry and structure of the design of heliostat to meet various requirements.