Project: Solar field measurements to improve performance
| Acronym | LEIA (Reference Number: ID10) |
| Duration | 01/03/2023 - 28/02/2026 |
| Project Topic | The aim of the project is to contribute to the market deployment of the next generation of innovative, reliable, and smart Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants focusing on new control and Operation and Maintenance (O&M) solutions for the central receiver technology using molten salts, as the most promising cost-effective solution with the highest market potential. To achieve it, the LEIA project will develop and test at PSA, CENER, and the Cerro Dominador CSP plant: - Smart heliostat field control solutions to automate and improve calibration and characterization. - Smart Receiver Control solutions to measure receiver temperature, emittance, and high solar irradiance distribution. - Solar Field O&M control strategies such as Automated Soiling Inspection and a Smart Energy Management system. The proposed developments will affect the following Key Performance Indicators taking as reference the business model applied on the Cerro Dominador CSP plant (100MWe, 17.5h of storage and lifecycle of 25 years): - A CAPEX increase of 0.05% and OPEX decrease of 1.1% in the solar field due to monitoring and measurement systems. - An increase of 5.6% in the annual generation of the plant due to the control strategies. - This results in a reduction of 7.9% on the LCOE for a final LCOE of 70.9 €/MWh. In view of the foregoing, LEIA puts together a team of 7 partners from 2 different countries with expertise in the main strategic CSP fields. The LEIA approach merging renowned renewable energy technology developers, research centers, and relevant EPC final users will facilitate its replication worldwide, promoting and consolidating the technological leadership of the EU in the Renewable Energy industry. The LEIA framework is completed by a Stakeholder Board conformed by PROTERMOSOLAR, ESTELA, ACSP, UNE, Sandia National Laboratory, and Cerro Dominador. All of them putting the foot down and really moving from intentions to actions in the development of the next generation of CSP plants. |
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Project Results (after finalisation) |
1 Smart heliostat field control solutions: The main goal is to find out the heliostats optical quality of a commercial CSP plant with an automated process. Three different systems will be developed within the project: 1.1 CIEMAT characterization solution: CIEMAT will develop at PSA and Cerro Dominador. 1.2 HELIOSCHAR+ characterization solution (CENER) 1.3 SUNSEN Real-time calibration solution (TEWER) 2 Smart receiver control: 2.1 Online & real-time solar receiver high solar irradiance measurement 2.2 Contactless receiver characterization 2.3 Refined receiver power-on/off method 3 Solar field O&M control strategies: 3.1 Cleanliness distribution (soiling) automated inspection methodology 3.2 Smart energy management system 3.3 New control plant system |
| Network | CSP ERANET |
| Call | 2nd CSP Joint Call |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIEMAT | Coordinator | Spain |
| 2 | ACCIONA INDUSTRIAL S.A. | Partner | Spain |
| 3 | CSP Services GmbH | Partner | Germany |
| 4 | Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) | Partner | Germany |
| 5 | TEWER ENGINEERING | Partner | Spain |
| 6 | FUNDACION CENER | Partner | Spain |
| 7 | Siemens Energy Global GmbH & Co. KG | Partner | Germany |