Industrial PC based heliostat control for solar power towers

Abstract

Nowadays, fossil fuels are being used widely and are being rapidly depleted. Therefore, alternative energy sources are needed. In solar energy systems, renewable energy projects have gained importance and have been produced. As a system that is being developed in recent years, solar power towers have been built in many countries and more and more people make use of them. Heliostats are some of the important components of the system which provide energy by focusing the sun rays. In this study, we have investigated the control of heliostats which are used in solar power towers. Industrial computers are mainly used in heliostats. The embedded operating systems, which are built into them, are flexible and can operate improved software and databases. By connecting a database and electronic control circuits to an industrial computer we were able to build a prototype heliostat. Given two angle values which specify the target's direction we were able to track the movements of the sun, have the heliostat work properly and analyse the results.