Modeling and control of solar plants

This research line, developed in close collaboration with researchers of Plataforma Solar de Almería, focuses on developing techniques and algorithms for modeling, control and optimization of solar thermal energy systems. Many different control strategies have been applied, raning from PID control, Model-based Predictive Control, optimal control , fuzzy logic control and so on.

The main plants covered by this research line are: solar towers, solar furnaces, parabolic troughs, solar desalination plants, solar buildings, low-temperature solar thermal systems.

Main lines:

  • Modelling and control of solar and thermal energy systems.
  • Production planning, grid integration and scheduling of solar and thermal energy systems.
  • Optimal operation of solar and thermal energy systems.
  • Demand side management.
  • Fault detection and diagnosis in solar and thermal energy systems.
  • Solar thermal power systems.
  • Solar and thermal heating and cooling and energy storage.
  • Solar and thermal desalination and distillation.
  • Solar and thermal energy systems in buildings.
  • Solar and thermal energy systems in agriculture.
  • Solar and thermal energy systems in photobioreactors and photofenton systems.