Sánchez González, AlbertoGrange, BenjaminCaliot, Cyril2021-05-142021-05-142020-12-21Optics Express, (2020), 28(26), pp. 39868-39889.1094-4087https://hdl.handle.net/10016/32640In solar tower plants, thousands of heliostats reflect sunlight into a central receiver. Heliostats consist of a subset of mirrors called facets that must be perfectly oriented (i.e., canted) to concentrate as much solar radiation as possible. This study presents and validates the so-called flux map fitting technique to detect and correct canting errors. The computed distributions were matched to a series of images through an optimization algorithm. According to the sensitivity analysis, three images spread along a single day provide sufficient information for the algorithm to succeed. Using this methodology, four heliostats at the THEMIS research facility were recanted, thereby substantially increasing the optical quality in three of them. The procedure to infer the heliostat aimpoint was assessed.21eng© 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement.Central receiversExperimental assessmentFitting techniquesFlux mapsOptical qualitiesOptimization algorithmsResearch facilitiesSolar tower plantsresearch articleEnergías RenovablesIngeniería Industrialhttps://doi.org/10.1364/OE.412116open access398682639889OPTICS EXPRESS28AR/0000027385