Project description
Digital tools powering the future of solar towers
Concentrated solar power (CSP) tower plants can deliver clean, dispatchable energy, but competitiveness remains limited by high capital costs and operational complexity leading to high operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses and limited efficiency. O&M costs can be drastically reduced using digital technologies and AI to enhance monitoring, control and predictive maintenance. These innovations improve performance and reliability throughout the plant’s lifetime. Without digital transformation, CSP risks being overtaken by cheaper renewables, constraining Europe’s energy diversification. The EU-funded SUN-DT project will create an integrated digital platform combining automated heliostat calibration and characterisation, a solar field and receiver digital twin, predictive maintenance and advanced energy management to boost CSP efficiency, reliability and competitiveness in Europe’s clean energy transition.
Objective
SUN-DT partners will take advantage of the great potential of the promising CSP tower technology together with the hitherto unexplored possibilities offered by digitalisation to execute this project, aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the European CSP tower plants sector, as well as that of its supplier digitalisation companies.
To do so, the project members will jointly mature four complementary and interoperable innovative digital tools: i) a tool for calibration and characterization of heliostats; ii) a Digital Twin of the solar field and the receiver; iii) an Energy Management System for dispatch optimization, and iv) a predictive tool for enhanced Operation and Maintenance(O&M). These digital tools will then be integrated into a single platform capable of processing data collectively to optimize decision-making at the plant level, and tested for validation in 2 experimental test facilities and 2 commercial tower plants.
Two of the world's largest solar thermal projects, the Khi Solar One plant and the Cerro Dominador plant, operated by two of the world's leading solar energy players, COX and ACCIONA respectively, have been selected for demonstration purposes in commercial plants. Each of them represents the two possible types of tower plants (circular solar field and north/south solar field), ensuring the versatility of the solutions adopted for all current and future plants. The demonstration period of the tools will be extended to 1,5 years, which will provide more robust test data and will bring the possibility of testing a complete year with its two distinct seasons: summer and winter.
Additionally, the joint maturing of the digital tools and their integration into a common infrastructure for running/coordinating/processing them together will increase the efficiency of the plants by managing multiple elements simultaneously. This will increase the number of data sources, and the amount of shared information for better decision-making.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.5 - Climate, Energy and Mobility
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.5.2 - Energy Supply
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
31621 Sarriguren
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.