Proceedings of the ASME 2018 Power and Energy Conference

PowerEnergy2018
June 24-28, 2018, Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA

PowerEnergy2018-7336

DEVELOPMENT OF A SMALL SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANT FOR HEAT AND

POWER SUPPLY TO DOMESTIC AND SMALL BUSINESS BUILDINGS

Khamid Mahkamov Piero Pili, Roberto Manca Arthur Leroux, Andre Charles
Northumbria University Elianto Mintsa
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Pula, Sardinia, Italy Enogia S.A.S
Marseille, France

Kevin Lynn, David Mullen, Carlo Bartolini, Matteo Pirro Sol-Carolina Costa
Elvedin Halimic STRATEGIE Northumbria University
AAVID Thermacore Europe Ancona, Italy Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Ashington, Northumberland, UK

Luisa F. Cabeza, Alvaro de Murat Kenisarin, Irina

Gracia Cuesto Makhkamova
University of Lleida Northumbria University
Lleida, Catalonia, Spain Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

ABSTRACT filed tests of the whole plant will be performed during the 2018-
2019 period.
The small solar thermal power plant is being developed
with funding from EU Horizon 2020 Program. The plant is
INTRODUCTION
configured around a 2-kWel Organic Rankine Cycle turbine and
solar field, made of Fresnel mirrors. The solar field is used to Micro CHP technologies run on fossil fuels such as natural
heat thermal oil to the temperature of about 240 oC. This gas have been intensively developed over the last several
thermal energy is used to run the Organic Rankine Cycle turbine decades and these were based on small Stirling engines, Internal
and the heat rejected in its condenser (about 18-kWth) is Combustion gas engines, steam and ORC turbines and
utilized for hot water production and living space heating. reciprocating engines, fuel cells etc. [1].
The plant is equipped with a latent heat thermal storage to Thermal engines, such as steam, ORC and Bryton turbines,
extend its operation by about 4 hours during the evening are usually deployed for conversion of solar energy or other
building occupancy period. The phase change material used is types of renewable energy and waste heat on a large scale [2,3].
Solar salt with the melting/solidification point at about 220 oC. Kalina cycle systems are also attractive for solar and waste
The total mass of the PCM is about 3,800 kg and the thermal energy utilization [4].
storage capacity is about 100 kWh. The operation of the plant
is monitored by a central controller unit. The main components A very limited number of technologies have been tested to
of the plant are being manufactured and laboratory tested with provide heat and power for individual houses or small business
the aim to assemble the plant at the demonstration site, located with utilization of solar and other types of renewable energy
in Catalonia, Spain. At the first stage of investigations the ORC and these include small medium temperature Stirling Engines
turbine will be directly integrated with the solar filed to evaluate [5] and PV-T technology. Due to relatively low-level
their joint performance. During the second stage of tests, the temperatures, the overall heat-to-electricity conversion
Latent Heat Thermal Storage will be incorporated into the plant efficiency in small Stirling engines is very low. Additionally,
and its performance during the charging and discharging this technology still carries a number of unresolved engineering
processes will be investigated. It is planned that the continuous issues such as the high level of thermal losses, use of expensive
materials, sealing of internal gas circuit, reliability in

1
exploitation, large dimensions and excessive weight. The PV-T
technology, which converts non-concentrated solar energy,
normally cannot provide sufficient amount of hot water and
meet heating requirements of dwellings and, therefore, is used
for pre-heating in domestic hot water supply systems. The micro
ORC turbine could provide feasible solution for generation heat
and power with the use of solar energy if technical problems on
maintaining the acceptable level of energy conversion efficiency
could be resolved at such micro scale. This work describes
collaborative activities of several SME and Universities on the
development of a small solar heat and power plant (Innova
MicroSolar) built around solar energy concentrating collectors,
2-kWel micro scale ORC turbine and latent heat thermal storage
system. The importance of the project lies in the opportunity to Fig. 1: The schematic of the Innova MicroSolar Plant
estimate the technical-economical and environmental Solar Concentrating Collector
performance of such technology in conditions of real
exploitation and evaluation of its feasibility compared to other In order to have the LFR collector’s structure sufficiently
existing and potential competing technologies. small and lightweight, Elianto’s team has applied a new type of
manufacturing technology for both the primary reflector and the
NOMENCLATURE frame components of the LFR assembly. Elianto’s R & D team
also run computer simulations to identify geometric dimensions
Abbreviations of the new LFR collector.
AR Anti Reflective
CAD Computer Aided Design The schematic of the Innova Micro Solar LFR collector’s
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics design is shown in Fig. 2.
CSP Concentrated Solar Power
HTF Heat Transfer Fluid
LFR Linear Fresnel Reflector
LHTES Latent Heat Thermal Storage
PCM Phase Change Material
P & ID Piping and Instrumentation Diagram
TES Thermal Energy Storage

SOLAR PLANT

The Innova MicroSolar system is being constructed to Fig. 2: The schematic of the Innova Micro Solar LFR
utilize solar energy to produce electricity and heating for collector’s design
domestic and small business buildings, see Fig 1. The system
consists of three main components: a solar field, which is solar In parallel to the computer simulation activity, extensive
power concentrating system (CSP), latent heat thermal energy optical numerical modelling was carried out to design the
storage system (LHTESS) and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) mirrors-receive system, capable to demonstrate high
turbine.The CSP system is based on the Linear Fresnel performance. Structural modelling was also performed, so the
Reflector (LFR) technology. This CSP system uses long construction will withstand high winds. The system consists of
segments of almost flat mirrors to focus the direct solar two modules with its own line of receivers, mounted at the
radiation upon a tubular receiver, which is mounted in the focal height of 3 m above the ground level. Each module is made of 9
line of mirrors. The ORC turbine is driven by solar energy or primary reflector units and 5 receiver tube units. The total
thermal energy, accumulated in the TES by solar salt used as a length and width of the module is about 20 and 6 m,
phase change material (PCM). The TES is charged during the respectively, and it covers a ground area of around 120 m2. The
day in parallel to operation of the ORC turbine. The design total net mirror surface area per module is 146 m2, which at
feature of TES is that heat is charged and discharged using the nominal conditions with the Direct Normal Irradiance equal to
Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) via horizontally installed reversible 900 W/m2 delivers a peak thermal power of 80 kW. Mirror
(bi-directional) heat pipes. laminas are of the high efficiency and reliability and primary
mirror reflectors are made of unbreakable solar grade
aluminium. The two LFR collector modules are connected to
form a single hydraulic loop. The HTF used is diathermic oil

2
Therminol 62, which can be exploited at temperatures over 340 annulus. Furthermore, it has been designed to capture HTF
°C. The Innova Micro Solar field is equipped with a fully hydrogen molecules, penetrating the steel tube.
automatic pumping unit, which is controlled using electric
Overall, the technical characteristics of the solar filed are as
valves and an array of process sensors, located in different parts
follows: the lowest net optical efficiency for the entire solar
of the plant. These sensors measure pressures, temperatures,
field is 60%; the lowest net thermal receiver tube efficiency is
mass fluxes and sun irradiation. All units of the plant are
70%; the solar peak thermal power is 60 kWth with the
connected to each other using thermally insulated piping
maximum HTF allowable outlet temperature of 290 °C.
network.
ORC Turbine
Incorporation of a mirror cleaning maintenance system is
possible with the chassis, which permit installation of the The design of ORC turbine was developed by Enogia to
optional automatic robot for washing primary reflectors. generate electricity at the rate of 2 kW. The Piping and
Instrumentation Diagram (P & ID) of the complete assembly of
The design of the collector has a very high mirror density the ORC unit is shown in Fig. 4. This P & ID presents
per unit of the ground area. The system operates in the fully installation and connections of all components, actuators,
automatic mode. pumps and sensors, which are mounted together on the single
The commercially available evacuated receiver of standard steel framework.
dimensions (70 mm in the dimeter) was selected for the new
LFR collector, see Fig. 3. It’s maximum operating temperature
is 400 °C and, at the operating temperature of the Innova Micro
Solar project equal to 300 °C, this component achieves the
efficiency of 90% in transferring solar flux energy to the HTF.

Fig. 4: Piping and Instrumentation Diagram of the ORC unit

1. Stainless steel absorber tube with spectrally selective coating;2.
It can be seen in this figure that the working fluid flows
Glass jacket with Anti Reflective (AR) coating; 3. Glass to metal seals;
4. Thermal expansion compensators; 5. Vacuum annulus;6. Non- from the tank to booster pump and then it is pressurized by the
evaporable Getter (NEG) pills; 7. Barium getter; 8. Pump nipple; 9. main pump. Further, the working fluid passes through the
Serial number. regenerator/recuperator to be preheated and then is boiled in the
Fig. 3: Innova MicroSolar evacuated receiver tube technology evaporator. The working fluid vapour is directed to the turbine
for the LFR collector blades and after expansion process it flows to the regenerator
for precooling. Finally, the vapour passes to the condenser and
The selected evacuated absorber tube technology uses a the formed fluid is taken to the tank. The working fluid is also
spectrally selective coating deposited on the steel tube. This is a used to cool the generator.
thin-film multilayer structure, including a layer of metal,
reflecting the infrared radiation, and a superior layer of Among various working fluids, two were identified as
antireflective (AR) ceramic material. A graded ceramic-metallic suitable for this project: NOVEC 649 and Cyclopentane.
material guarantees a high absorptance in the solar wavelength These two fluids have characteristics and properties, which
range and a low emittance behavior at the operational mostly satisfy project and ORC design requirements. The
temperature of the solar receiver up to 400 °C. The external NOVEC 649, commercialized by 3M, is an HFE. It is
glass has an AR coating on both surfaces in order to minimize environmentally friendly, easy to handle as it is considered to be
the reflection losses. The thermal expansion compensators are non-hazardous fluid: it is not flammable and is not toxic. This
required between the metallic absorber tube and external glass fluid was identified as the first choice working fluid for the use
envelope. In order to maintain vacuum inside the glass in ORC prototype. The Cyclopentane is the second working
envelope, the compensators are installed using a special glass- fluid, which has a certain potential for the use in the ORC unit
to-metal seal. The tube getter provides the safe and efficient in this project. It has even superior thermodynamic properties,
operation during the expected receiver’s lifetime, absorbing the compared to NOVEC 649, but this substance is flammable,
residual gases on the metal and glass surfaces inside the which leads to a number of constraints in the prototype design.

3
For the above reasons, the ORC prototype is designed to
operate using both NOVEC 649 and Cyclopentane.
Table 1 shows calculated theoretical performance of the
ORC unit using NOVEC 649 and Cyclopentane. The system
will operate at the temperature of 200 °C, achieved in the
“heating” loop of the plant (solar field and heat storage). For the
first prototype, NOVEC 649 is chosen as the final working
fluid.
Table 1. Theoretical estimation of the ORC unit performance

Fig. 6: CFD simulation results on pressure variations in the

NOVEC 649 vapour, flowing through the stator-rotor assembly

After completion of CFD simulations of the turbine’s stator

and rotor blades, the volute and housing components of the
ORC turbine were designed. The structural analysis of these
components was performed to finalize the selection of
materials, so to ensure that deformations in the geometry of
components due to pressure, inertia and thermal loads during
operation will not exceed critical levels, causing mechanical
destruction or seizure of rotating parts. Using high grade or
stainless steel for manufacturing turbine components, capable to
withstand the high temperatures and pressures, would result in
these components being too heavy. This, in turn, would result in
the excessive inertial load on the rotor and necessity to use
larger bearings. For these reasons, the titanium alloy Ti6AlV4
was selected as the material to manufacture rotor blades and the
The ORC turbine’s rotor and stator were designed and volute. The use of the titanium alloy also makes it possible to
dimensioned using 3-D CFD simulations, see Figs. 5 and 6. In keep the thermal expansion of components at the low level,
simulations the rotor blades are considered to be in rotation at which is critical to maintain small gaps between the volute and
the speed of 43,500 rpm. A polyhedral type of mesh has been tips of blades of the turbine. Figs. 7 and 8 show the 3-D CAD
used in the computational domain with a very fine mesh being assembly of ORC unit and its view from the top. The
deployed in the vicinity of walls. The number of cells in the dimensions of the steel framework are 1470 x 800 x 750 mm
computational mesh is 580,000. Since the performance of a (height x width x depth).
small turbines is very sensitive to various types of losses, this
type of simulations is used to identify elements in the design,
causing losses due to separation of the flow and improve the
geometry of the turbine blades.

Fig. 5: Computational mesh for the stator-rotor assembly

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 Fig. 7: 3-D CAD design of the ORC unit assembly Fig. 9: The manufactured and assembled ORC unit

Fig. 10: Experimental results on the ORC performance at the

temperature of heating thermal oil equal to 140 °C
LHTES System
Fig. 8: 3-D CAD design of the ORC unit assembly: view from
The purpose of the LHTES system is to accumulate and
the top
then provide the thermal energy for operation of the ORC
Fig. 9 shows the photograph of the manufactured 2-kWel turbine over a 4-hour period, when there is no solar energy is
ORC assembly and Fig. 10 presents experimental results from available (at the night-occupancy time). The thermal energy
preliminary tests of the ORC unit using thermal oil with should be supplied to the ORC at the rate of 25 kWth so its
maximum temperature of 140 °C. At these conditions, the ORC storing capacity is 100 kWh.
units produces about 700 W of electricity. Currently, the design Out of several PCMs, tested for the use in LHTES system
of the turbine is being modified and preparations are underway of the Innova MicroSolar Plant, solar salt was selected for the
for tests with the temperature of thermal oil up to 220 °C. thermal energy storage at the temperature of 220 °C. Thermo-
physical properties of solar salt were measured using the
Differential Scanning Calorimetry technique and thermal
conductivity meter. This data is presented in Table 2.

5
Table 2. Solar salt physical properties
Property Formula Units Ref.
Tsolidus 218 °C PW*
Tliqvidus 230 °C PW
Hfusion 94.3 kJ/kg PW
ρliquid 2106 -0.680 T (°C) kg/m3 [6]
Cpliquid 1620 J/kg °C PW
kliquid 0.380 + 3.452·10-4 T (°C) W/m °C [6]
ηliquid 1/(–0.263 + 0.0020 T (°C)) cP [7,8]
* PW is present work
The main disadvantage of the PCM is its low thermal
conductivity, which makes it difficult to complete the
discharging and charging processes in the required 4-hour
period. Therefore, various methods to enhance the heat Fig. 11: Design of the single module of the LHTES
conduction were investigated. The heat transfer enhancement in
the LHTES system can be divided into two groups, namely
increasing the PCM thermal conductivity by adding high
thermal conductive particles and by placing high thermal
conductivity insertions into the PCM (e.g. metallic fins, heat
pipes, and others) [9]. The approach selected in the project is
the use of reversible (bi-directional) heat pipes in a combination
with metallic inserts.
Figs. 11, 12 and 13 show the general design of LHTES
system’s single module. The module is divided into two main
volumes: the first volume is the oil reservoir with the inlet and
outlet for the HTF with the second volume being PCM
chamber. An array of stainless steel cartridges horizontally run
through oil and PCM chambers. These are used to house the bi- Fig. 12: Thermal oil and PCM chambers in the single module
directional heat pipes and also to transfer heat from the of the LHTESS
condensing zone of the heat pipes to the vertical metallic
insertions, which are used as fins. The pitch between these
vertical fins is between 8 and 10 mm.
The HTF, flowing from the solar field, passes heat to the
array of horizontally mounted heat pipes through their smaller
fins, welded to pipes in their evaporative zone, see Fig. 14.
Heat is then transferred to the PCM via vertical fins – metallic
insertions in the PCM chamber. When it is necessary to deliver
heat from the PCM storage to the ORC unit, these heat pipes
work in the opposite direction. Their longer condensing zone
operates as the evaporative zone and the part of heat pipes,
located in the oil chamber, turns into the condensing zone. The
length of heat pipes in the oil chamber is approximated 0.1m.
The PCM chamber of the LHTES system has internal Fig. 13: The single module of the LHTESS with vertical fins
dimensions of 1000 mm x 660 mm x 470 mm. The mass of the (metallic instertions).
PCM in the module is about 600 kg. The length of heat pipes,
embedded into the PCM, is about 450 mm. One of the In order to store the amount of thermal energy, sufficient to
challenges in designing the LHTES system is the selection of run the ORC plant for 4 hours, the mass of solar salt is
the configuration of these metallic inserts to maximize the approximately 3.8 tons with the volume of the LHTESS being 2
capacity and performance with the minimum increase in the m3. A modular design concept of the LHTESS is adopted in
weight and cost. order to have between 6 to 10 modules as is shown in Fig 15.

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 The Central Control System
The Control system was designed by STRATEGIE S.R.L.
to monitor the overall system and to control and supervise
interaction between plant’s individual components. The Control
system carries out pre-operational checks, start-up, operation
monitoring, scheduling, controlled or emergency shut-downs,
solar tracking, monitoring of charging and discharging
processes in the thermal storage and on- and off-grid modes of
operation of the power plant. The control system uses specially
developed built-in software. The control algorithms have been
created to fully satisfy the domestic hot water and space heating
demand and to achieve the highest possible energy and carbon
Fig. 14: Fins welded to the part of heat pipes in the oil chamber savings. This goal is to prioritize the operation of ORC unit at
high solar irradiation and the recharging process of the thermal
storage. Another goal is the use of thermal storage for running
the ORC unit at periods, when solar irradiation is not sufficient
to run the plant. The developed central control system does not
provide detailed control over single subsystems, but collects
information on their status through a fieldbus connection. The
control unit uses the collected information to achieve an
efficient management and better integration of all subsystems.
Smart integration with a domestic boiler has been implemented
in order to provide the domestic user with hot water even when
there is no sufficient solar energy, optimizing the energy
consumption. Furthermore, the smart control interface has been
developed to ensure full compatibility with the state-of-the-art
home/building automation control solutions.
Fig. 15: The modular design of the LHTESS
Control procedures are organized in two separate and
The heat pipes, developed by Aavid Thermacore, are made parallel layers. The lower layer is responsible for system safety:
of 70 Cu (Copper) & 30 Ni (Nickel) alloy with the working if the system is not in a safe state to operate, the control will not
fluid being water. The operational pressure is about 70 bar at generate the enabling signal for different subsystems, blocks
the temperature of 285 °C, see Fig. 16 control procedures and deactivates supervision policies. As the
system returns into the safe state, all functionalities will be
enabled again. The upper layer is responsible for the system
control. The whole system can work in eight different
Fig. 16: Reversible (bi-directional) heat pipe. configurations, depending on the actual status of its sub-
The experimental tests of heat pipes revealed that these systems. Each of such configurations is identified with a
can transfer a maximum power of 120 W each and the specific phase identifier. Transitions between different phases
temperature difference across the pipe’ length does not exceed are regulated by the corresponding control strategies. Process
10.4 °C at the heating temperature of 290 °C, see Fig. 17. parameters (mass flows, temperatures and other variables) are
also regulated in this applicative layer.
The heat rejected in the ORC turbine is used to produce
domestic hot water and for heating purposes. Therefore, the
ORC unit is integrated with the domestic boiler. The boiler
provides additional heat, if the user requires higher thermal
output than that produced by the ORC unit. In this case the
boiler is switched on to reach the desired temperature level. If
the amount of heat, produced by the ORC unit is sufficient, then
the boiler remains switched off. The control system provides the
user with the option to preconfigure timing of the hot water
production and also hot water pre-heat, which allows the boiler
to deliver hot water more quickly. When the heating is on, the
Fig. 17: Tests of horizontally mounted heat pipes optimizer function calculates the time needed for the boiler to

7
start in order to reach the correct temperature at the hybrid fuzzy-PI technique. Both techniques implement
programmed times. nonlinear adaptive control, for which it is not necessary to have
detailed information on the system model.
The CSP field and ORC unit are equipped with their own
internal alarm and warning systems, which display actual status Gain scheduling involves the definition of several working
of a set of parameters, and active alarms and warnings through points and the tuning of proper gains in each of these working
Modbus fieldbus. Therefore, the central control system conditions while the benefit of the fuzzy-PI controller is that it
monitors the CSP field and ORC unit internal statuses and does not use the specific operating point. The rules evaluate the
prevents situations, when the whole system does not operate difference between the measured value and the set value, which
properly. When the central control detects an alarm condition in is the error signal. The rules also evaluate the trend in variation
the CSP or ORC unis, these are isolated from the other of the error signal to determine whether to increase or decrease
components of the plant. Additionally, an alarm will be the control variable input.
generated for the operator via the management interface in
The control system software architecture was developed,
order to facilitate the system safety maintenance.
following the SMoRES standard (Scalable, Modular, Reusable,
Smart optimization logics were developed with the aim to Extensible and Simple). Several independent modules were
improve the system performance and two different approaches, developed and tested using the queued state machine design
that may be applied at the same time in a synergistic way, were pattern. The interaction between modules was realized with an
considered. The first approach consists of a fuzzy based exchange of messages and this approach allows an easy
controller, which acts on the higher level with respect to the integration of additional features without changing the basic
temperature regulators, used in the system by changing the ones, which were already tested. In the experimental plant such
temperature setpoint in an adaptive manner. Basically, given a features are essential because not all technical specifications are
desired setpoint and following some linguistic rules, a fuzzy defined at the project stage and during the development and
controller adds a positive or negative ΔSetpoint in order to setup phase re-definition of some management policies might be
increase the convergence speed. ΔSetpoint is changed in the required.
adaptive way, i.e. it is larger in the magnitude if the actual Software modules have different roles and run
temperature differs greatly from the setpoint value. This independently, adding specific functionalities to the complete
technique was developed for the case, in which it is assumed system. Modules communicate with each other using messages,
that the temperature and flow regulation is performed internally exchanged through software queues, and share data using
for the solar field and in which the central controller does not dedicated structures designed to avoid the data corruption.
have direct access to the subsystem. In this case, the fuzzy The following software modules have been designed:
approach is one of the few valid and robust methods for ● Enogia System (ORC) Interface module: this module is
controlling and optimization. responsible for communication with the Enogia system,
which reads sensor signals and actuator status and active
For the case in which the flow and temperature regulations
alarm codes or set actuator status.
are performed by the central control unit, the global aspects
● Elianto System (CSP) Interface module: the module is
have to be taken into account and this cannot be achieved by
responsible for communication with the Elianto system,
only using the subsystems control. Therefore, the optimization
which reads sensor signals and actuator status and active
could be performed by acting directly on the parameters of
alarms codes or set actuator status.
these regulators.
● WAGO System management module: this is responsible
However, the preference was given to maintain a for communication with WAGO distributed I/O system.
hierarchical control architecture because of a top-down ● Safety Management module: this manages safety of the
approach, where low level regulators are static and programmed whole system and ensures that all systems are in the
only for the system setup, while the supervision layer is correct operating conditions prior to start up.
dynamically configurable and is responsible for global ● Automatic Management:
optimization. ○ Control - this module implements all the system
control logics such as regulations and phase switching.
Other alternative approaches are also possible, which
○ Optimization - this module implements the
ensure that the basic architecture of the fuzzy optimizer is
optimization policies when the system is in a consonant
unchanged. For example, when the enthalpy control is used
working condition.
rather than a temperature one, new functions for fuzzification
● Datalog - this module implements configurable datalog.
and de-fuzzification should be developed and new rules should
The user can configure this by specifying which system
be identified, but the approach structure, as mentioned above,
variables should be logged and the acquisition rate.
remains unchanged. Another approach is to improve the system
● User Management: this module implements user
regulators performance. This could be done in two different
management such as login and logout features and roles
ways, namely by performing a gain scheduling policy or using a
and permission management.

8
● Alarms Management: this module implements a central
alarm management detecting error signals from the several
subsystems and implementing the proper safety
procedures.
Manual interface has been developed as a separate upper
layer because it requires input from the operator and it is
optional, while other modules are needed for the correct
management of the system. Fig. 18 shows the draft version of
the operator manual interface.

Fig. 19: Control cabinet’s block scheme

The cabinet’s dimensions are 600 mm in length, 1000 mm
in width and 250 mm in depth, see Fig. 20. The choice of these
dimensions and geometry selection was made with the purpose
to accommodate all electrical components, allowing sufficient
ventilation and leaving 25% of the internal space available for
further modification, as required.

Fig. 18: The operator manual interface

All system sensor measurements are presented in real time

and it is also possible to manually activate pumps and
proportional valves. Pipes are coloured depending on the
measured temperature in order to give to the user an immediate
information on the system status.
The control cabinet’s electrical design was produced for the
control system as a priority for the realization of the scalable
and robust system. The control system central unit is an
embedded fan-less industrial PC with the role to monitor each
subsystem and carry out the central management of the whole
system. The hardware architecture of the control system is
presented in Fig. 19. Here the embedded PC is connected
through the main switch to the external component (the ORC
and CSP units) using Modbus TCP-IP open standard protocol.
The WAGO unit is placed inside the control cabinet and
connected to the field bus to provide the management of digital
and analogue inputs/outputs. In the first version of the cabinet
just one digital input/output module with eight isolated inputs
and eight isolated outputs was installed in accordance with the
specifications received from other project partners, but an Fig. 20: Electrical Cabinet
extension of its capacity can be easily carried out.
The forced ventilation system is installed in order to allow
the sufficient air circulation for cooling of installed electronic
components and to maintain the optimal operating temperature.
Components are arranged internally in such a way that the
equipment, that generates heat most intensively, is located at the
top of the cabinet to avoid an early deterioration of the most
sensitive electronic components such as the PC and WAGO
central unit.

9
 An UPS was used to prevent voltage drops that could cause ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
the sudden shutdown, resulting in the PC damage. In case of the
power failure, the control system will perform all procedures to This study was funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020
bring the system into the safe status. Research and Innovation Program under Project Grant
Agreement 723596 (Innova MicroSolar).
The connection between the PC/tablet and control system is
performed through a standard WIFI connection. Both open REFERENCES
standard (RESTful Web Service) and proprietary standard were
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both directions. Materials, Energy and Environment Engineering (ISM3E
Solar salt was selected as the PCM for LHTES system and 2015). Changsha, China on November 28-29, 2015.
its thermo-physical properties were measured to obtain data for [7] C.E. Fawsitt. CXXIV.—Viscosity determinations at high
LHTES system designing. The configuration of the single temperatures. J Chem Soc, Trans, vol. 93, pp. 1299-1307,
LHTES module was numerically simulated in order to 1908.
rationalize its design. A smaller version of the single module of [8] Y. Jin, J. Cheng, X. An, T. Su, P. Zhang, Z. Li. Accurate
the LHTES system is being built to experimentally evaluate its viscosity measurement of nitrates/nitrites salts for
dynamic characteristics such as the thermal energy charging and concentrated solar power. Sol Energy, vol. 137, pp.385-
discharging rates. 392, 2016.
Hardware and software of the central control system’s [9] J. Chen, D. Yang, J. Jiang, A. Ma, and D. Song. Research
functionality was tested in laboratory conditions using Matlab Progress of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) Embedded
Simulink for imitation of all system components and various with Metal Foam (a Review). Procedia Mater Sci, vol. 4,
operational scenarios. pp. 389-394, 2014.
Currently, the plant is being assembled in the Catalan
Region of Spain. At the first stage of demonstrations the
simplified version of the plant, in which the solar field is
directly connected to the ORC turbine, will be tested. Later on it
is planned to extend the plant’s configuration by including the
thermal storage and its integration into electrical grid and hot
water & heating system of a small hostel.

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