Energy production since the Industrial Revolution has focused on the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas). On the other hand, the emerging powers (China, India and Brazil), eager to increase their economies and replicating the growth model of industrialized countries, are equally intensive in the consumption of previous raw materials. This inevitably creates two serious problems:• The progressive depletion of oil and natural gas fields (estimated life of 50 years) and coal (150 years). • The unbridled emissions of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) that go hand in hand with the burning of fuels (particles present in the atmosphere in concentrations of 413 ppm, already responsible for an increase of 1ºC in atmospheric temperature). It is sadly known as climate change.There are a great many activities that people carry out that generate this unsustainable environmental pollution: in addition to "classic" energy production, transport, the manufacture of consumer goods, mining, telecommunications, the food industry... and building are also responsible. In fact, it is estimated that in Spain it is responsible for 33% of the annual energy consumption generated (imputed to the energy needed to manufacture precise building materials for the sector and thermal and electrical energy used by households and buildings). And this sector is responsible, with the current national energy mix, for 30% of harmful emissions. As a result, it seems imperative that advanced societies begin a transition to an economic model of growth based on sustainable development, where the two pillars are energy efficiency and renewable energy. In addition, new players are emerging that will change the global energy paradigm in the coming decades: distributed generation, intelligent buildings, near-zero consumption housing and massive data processing. An exciting challenge for the future. Among renewable technologies, solar energy in all its aspects (thermal, photovoltaic and concentration) is one of the best candidates to lead the previous challenge. Fortunately, the first two are already familiar in the building sector. The first one is for DHW production, heating support, swimming pool heating and solar absorption cooling. The second one is either for electricity generation for self-consumption or for injection into the grid. However, the concentration site to date has had a negligible presence in homes and buildings. Thus, even though there is an installed base of 50 solar thermal industrial plants already in operation and high power (totalling 2.3 GW in Spain), there are almost no devices based on concentrated solar energy adapted to the energy needs of new buildings. In addition, the current solar irradiance databases are obtained by means of surface radiometers distributed throughout the country, together with indirect measurements of reflected radiation on the earth's surface, integrated into data interpolation algorithms: although they are valid, there is room for improvement in order to draw up tables of ad hoc values.As with the e...
