en.Wedoany.com Reported - Research teams from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have made public the operational data from the Jülich Solar Tower experimental power plant in western Germany. The database is freely accessible.
A solar tower power plant does not convert sunlight directly into electricity. Instead, it uses an array of movable mirrors, called heliostats, to concentrate light onto a receiver at the top of a central tower, generating thermal energy that can be stored, used for direct power generation, or applied in industrial processes.
Dr. Kaleb Phipps from the KIT Scientific Computing Center noted that operating a solar tower power plant safely and efficiently is a complex and costly task. To develop and reliably test new processes, the research team required real operational data. The PAINT database provides this information in an open, structured format. Claimed to be the first of its kind, it contains 849 gigabytes of operational data from the Jülich Solar Tower between 2021 and 2024.
The dataset includes the precise positions and dimensions of 2,014 mirrors, as well as information on their possible rotation and tilt movements. Additionally, there are over 218,000 images that can be used to verify whether the mirrors accurately project light onto the target point, along with data on mirror surface warping. Meteorological data for the entire period is also retrievable.
The researchers explained that the database is designed to aid in studying challenges in solar tower operation, such as heliostat alignment issues, which can be affected by wind, wear, or imprecise control.
Phipps added that the team aims to continue advancing PAINT in collaboration with other research institutions and power plant operators. As data from different facilities is added in the future, it may become possible to establish common standards for open operational data in solar tower research, thereby accelerating technology development and promoting broader adoption of the technology.
The database was introduced in the research paper "The PAINT database for operational concentrating solar power plant data following FAIR data principles," published in the journal Nature Energy. In the paper's conclusion, the research team wrote that the release of this database is "a catalyst for a paradigm shift in open concentrating solar power research." By establishing community standards, PAINT provides a scalable framework for integrating additional data sources and modalities. This expansion is crucial for enhancing the dataset's applicability and transferability across different power plant designs and serves as a cornerstone for ongoing global collaboration.
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