A distributed control system for a field of spin-elevation heliostats

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe the architecture of a distributed control system designed to handle several heliostats in a solar concentration field. The system foresees the use of solar power to achieve the necessary temperature to activate a dry reforming process in order to convert landfill gasses into hydrogen that will be exploited for energy production. Between the manifold solar concentration technologies the Central Tower Heliostat Field was adopted. This paper includes a first section regarding the most common geometry of solar receivers and concentrators and a set of equations for the main sun tracking techniques. The chosen hardware components and the software solutions will be illustrated as well.