Optimum Control of Parabolic Trough Solar Fields with Partial Radiation*

This paper describes the main problems of operating parabolic trough solar fields during days with partial radiation. An optimal control strategy is proposed to solve these problems and it is assessed against a classical one, which uses a feedforward and a PI controller with a fixed set point of oil outlet temperature. Some simulations have been made using MATLAB to demonstrate that using the optimal control strategy better results can be achieved.