Welcome to the SmartHelio project website

SmartHelio as a Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF Cyprus) funded project
aims to develop smart, modular, adaptive optics heliostats for Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) applications

Project Summary

Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) technologies can successfully address energy needs in a renewable and sustainable way, since these can provide dispatchable electricity and high-temperature process heat thanks to their capability of operating at high temperatures and integrating large thermal energy storage in a very cost effective way. In a CST tower system, a field of heliostats (a mechatronic system with reflecting mirrors) are tracking the sun to always reflect and concentrate the direct sunlight towards a thermal receiver sitting atop of a tower. The concentrated direct solar radiation is transformed into the enthalpy increase of a heat transfer fluid and this, in turn, is used to run a cyclic thermal process, such as a conventional power block, generating electricity and heat during the process.

CST hold the promise of becoming the backbone component in the energy transition towards a very much needed decarbonized and sustainable world energy system. Actually, the intermediate step of transforming solar radiation into thermal energy allows the hybridization of CST systems with other forms of heat generation, as well as the integration of cheap and efficient energy storage, thus enabling the further penetration of non-dispatchable technologies such as wind or solar photovoltaic, which can be stabilized by their coexistence with CST. However, for this promise to be fulfilled, the cost-competitiveness of CST technologies should be substantially enhanced by increasing the efficiency of the systems that composed a CST plant and lowering their cost.

The project bridges the gap between local academia and industry to jointly co-develop and advance to a TRL5, a breakthrough and internationally competitive technology related to development of a ‘’smart modular heliostat’’ which provides the key enabling technology for the wider penetration of CST renewable energy systems into the local, regional and global energy markets, summing up a large set of advantages over the current state-of-the-art.​

“The Project CODEVELOP-GT/0322/0025 is funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU, through the Research and Innovation Foundation”