Adaptive control of distributed collector solar fields

Distributed collector solar fields are spatially distributed engineering systems which aim at collecting and storing energy from solar radiation. They are formed by mirrors which concentrate direct incident sun light in a pipe where an oil able to accumulate thermic energy flows. From the control point of view, the objective consists of making the outlet oil temperature to track a reference signal by manipulating the oil flow, in the possible presence of fast disturbances caused by passing clouds. This paper reviews from a unified standpoint adaptive algorithms to solve this control problem. Besides their intrinsic interest, distributed collector solar fields are representative of a class of systems with technical interest, involving transport phenomena, to which the methods considered can be applied. A trade-off is shown to exist: By incorporating more information about plant dynamics, the control algorithms yield an increased performance, but they become less general.