CENER leads the new European project SUN-DT to drive the digitalisation and competitiveness of solar tower power plants

The National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain (CENER) hosted on 7–8 October at its headquarters in Sarriguren (Navarra, Spain) the kick-off meeting of the new European project SUN-DT (“Smart Use of Novel Digital Tools for Advanced Performance and Reduced Costs in CSP Tower Plants”), which it leads and coordinates. The project has been recently selected and funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme to promote the digitalisation and competitiveness of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) tower plants.

SUN-DT has been recognised for its scientific and technological excellence and will run for three years, with a total budget of €2,995,445.97, of which €756,671 correspond to CENER, under Grant Agreement No. 101234781.

The kick-off meeting brought together representatives from all consortium partners, as well as from the European Commission and CINEA (European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency), responsible for the project’s management. The participants defined the initial work plan and roadmap for the next three years, aimed at maintaining Europe’s leadership in solar tower technology through advanced digital solutions.

Artificial intelligence and digital tools to boost the European CSP sector

The overall goal of SUN-DT is to enhance the competitiveness of the European solar tower CSP sector and its digital technology providers by developing and integrating four innovative and interoperable digital tools:

1. HELIOSTATACC, a modular tool for automatic calibration and characterisation of heliostats.
2. SUN-DTWIN, a Digital Twin of the solar field and receiver for automated decision-making.
3. D-OPT, an advanced energy management and dispatch optimisation system based on weather and market forecasts as well as provision of auxiliary services.
4. PREDOM, a predictive operation and maintenance (O&M) tool powered by artificial intelligence.

These solutions will be integrated into a common digital platform (SUN-DT Platform) capable of processing data collectively to optimise plant operation, reducing O&M costs by up to 15%, increasing overall efficiency by 4–10%, and improving plant profitability by around 5%.

Focus on real-world validation to accelerate technology adoption

The project follows a progressive validation strategy that combines testing in experimental R&D facilities with demonstration in real commercial CSP tower plants.
In the first phase, developments will be tested at DLR’s Solar Towers (Germany) and IMDEA Energy’s facilities (Spain). Subsequently, they will be demonstrated at two of the world’s largest CSP tower plants:

• Cerro Dominador (Chile), operated by ACCIONA, and
• Khi Solar One (South Africa), operated by COX Energy EPC.

These demonstrations—lasting approximately 18 months—will test the tools under real operating conditions and different solar field configurations. During the final two years of the project, the consortium will work closely with plant operators to ensure rapid commercial adoption of the developed technologies, supporting their transfer to market and contributing to the decarbonisation of the energy system.

A European consortium of excellence

In addition to CENER, which leads the project and coordinates the integration and validation of the digital tools, the SUN-DT consortium brings together leading organisations from across Europe in the fields of energy, digitalisation, and industrial innovation:

• DLR (German Aerospace Center, Germany): development of digital twins and control algorithms.
• CIEMAT (Spain): design of the digital infrastructure and data management.
• Fundación IMDEA Energía (Spain): experimental validation of predictive tools and systems.
• IMDEA Networks (Spain): advanced communications and 5G connectivity for solar plants.
• INAVITAS (Turkey): data analytics and AI applied to O&M optimisation.
• ACCIONA Construcción, S.A. (Spain): demonstration and validation at commercial plant level.
• COX Energy EPC, S.L. (Spain): implementation and testing in operating tower plant.
• ESTELA (Belgium): dissemination, exploitation, and support for market uptake in Europe.

This combination of research centres, industrial companies and sectoral associations ensures scientific excellence, knowledge transfer, and a clear orientation of results towards real-world applications.

Advancing the digital transformation of the solar tower industry

With SUN-DT, CENER strengthens its position as a European reference in innovation for solar thermal energy and industrial digitalisation, contributing to the objectives of the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) and reinforcing Europe’s leadership in Concentrated Solar Power technologies.