IDEA - CSP: mirrors control system for solar concentration

CSP control

Mirror control in a CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) solar system.

THE REQUEST:

Develop an electronic control board capable of controlling a matrix of 25 mirrors that act as a solar concentrator towards a Sterling motor.

TECHNOLOGY

The project envisaged the realization of the control electronics hardware (including the case) for the mirror system of the CSP solar concentrator, the porting of the control algorithm developed in MATLAB on a Microchip microcontroller and the development of further firmware modules necessary for system operation.

The CSP-Concentrated Solar Power system concerns a technology that allows you to concentrate the sun’s rays from a large surface to a point (Focal) through the use of lenses or mirrors. Concentrated light can be converted into electricity or used as a source of thermal energy.

During the design process it was decided to assemble an initial prototype (prototype 0) consisting of a Microchip development board and a first motor driver.

The system features are:

Handling 25 pairs of stepper motors according to the algorithm provided by the customer
Pyranometer handling
Power failure management
Battery management
System Log Management
System Warning Management (with TimeStamp)
Automatic Recalibration Algorithm Management.
Hydraulic Pump Management
Liter counter management
Datalog management
Flash saving of the datalog

User menu to manage the following functions:

Change Now
Change Date
Change Latitude and Longitude
Structure rotation setting
Structure angle setting
Load Temperature Setting
Manual Recalibration
Geometric parameters setting of the receiver
System Reset
Standby function
Flush from serial data log
Flush from datalog flash
Parameter View

CSP control

Mirror control in a CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) solar system.

"A project developed with Microchip technology that opened the doors for us to become Microchip Design Partner."

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