Acciona commissions 50 MW solar plant

CORDOBA, SPAIN - Acciona Energia S.A. is celebrating its new status as the largest producer of power from concentrated solar power CSP, following its commissioning of the 50-megawatt MW Palma del Rio II project in the Cordoba province of Spain.

The company now commands 17 of the worldwide installed CSP marketplace, with 214 MW of capacity spread across three Spanish plants and one in the United States.

The company is also building the twin Palma del Rio I project nearby, which will be commissioned in 2011, although it was originally scheduled for commissioning this summer. The Palma Del Rio II plant cost an estimated 251 million euros US $334 million to construct. Located on a site of 260 hectares, both plants will have a combined generating capacity of 100 MW and use 1,520 collectors and 364,800 mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays.

The two plants will generate about 232 million kilowatt-hours KWh a year, enough to power approximately 77,000 homes, and offset the emissions of 223,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, compared with a typical coal-fired plant.

"They will also help to reduce external energy dependence of Spain by about 130,000 barrels of oil per year," Acciona said at the opening ceremony.

At the two plants, the CSP collectors and mirrors concentrate solar radiation into 18,240 reception tubes. Oil running through the tubes reaches a temperature of 400 degrees Celsius and travels from the solar field to the power unit, where it is transferred to a heat exchanger in which water becomes steam to drive a turbine/generator to produce electrical power. The energy created will be transferred to a substation at Villanueva del Ray to the national grid.

Last August, Acciona opened the company's first European concentrating solar power plant in Alvarado, Spain, which is in the Extremadura region in the southwest of the country. The 50-MW Alvarado I plant cost 236 million euros US $312.1 million and can generate enough electricity to power 28,000 homes. Sitting on a 130-hectare site, the facility consists of 184,320 mirrors aligned in rows to capture sunlight, along with 768 solar collectors with a total length of about 74 kilometres.

Acciona already has a plant using solar-trough technology at the 64-MW Nevada Solar One facility in the U.S, which has been operating since 2007.