Solar Energy Autopilot (SOLEA): A holistic system architecture for autonomous concentrated solar thermal plants
Concentrated solar thermal (CST) plants can provide dispatchable renewable energy through high-temperature heat and integrated thermal storage, but their commercial deployment is hampered by high operational complexity and associated costs. Increasing the degree of system autonomy is a promising strategy to manage this complexity, reduce operating costs, and improve plant efficiency. However, most existing work still focuses on isolated automation tasks such as heliostat calibration, flux measurement, or plant maintenance rather than plant-wide automation concepts. In addition, there is little empirical evidence from operational CST facilities on the benefits that increased system autonomy can bring to the CST domain. This contribution addresses both gaps by presenting the Solar Energy Autopilot (SOLEA), a novel holistic four-layer architecture for autonomous CST plant operation that has been implemented and evaluated under realistic conditions at the solar tower Jülich (STJ) facility.
Authors
- Peter Schwarzbözl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9339-7884)
- Rafal Broda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2378-1776)
- Alexander Schnerring (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1700-6481)
- Felix Göhring (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8514-0453)
- Bärbel Schlögl-Knothe
- Marc Röger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0618-4253)
- Mathias Kuhl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0097-7260)
- Kai Wieghardt
- Stefan Wilbert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3573-3004)
- Robert Pitz‐Paal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3542-3391)
- Michael Felderer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3818-4442)
- Bijan Nouri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9891-1974)
- Daniel Maldonado Quinto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2929-8667)
- Marcel Sibum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5522-9633)
- Inga Miadowicz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9766-8804)
- Eduardo Saez Martinez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1504-2203)
- Niklas Dürr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3689-3490)
- Volker Rasing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7847-063X)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Solar Energy
- Published
- 2026-09-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2026.115154
- Primary Topic
- Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00