Abstract
High-concentration solar thermal systems require the Sun to be tracked
with great accuracy. The higher the system concentration, the greater
this accuracy must be. The current trend in solar concentrator tracking
systems is to use open-loop controllers that compute the direction
of the solar vector based on location and time. To keep down the
price of the tracking system, the controller is based on a low-cost
microprocessor. These two facts impose important restrictions on
the Sun position algorithm to be used in the controller, as it must
be highly accurate and efficiently computable at the same time. In
this paper, various algorithms currently available in the solar literature
are reviewed and a new algorithm, developed at the Plataforma Solar
de AlmerÂ?ýa, which combines these two characteristics of accuracy
and simplicity, is presented. The algorithm allows of the true solar
vector to be determined with an accuracy of 0.5 minutes of arc for
the period 1999â2015.
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