Wind Energy

Concentrating Solar Power: SENER and Torresol Energy to attend WFES 2012

The SENER engineering and technology group and its joint venture with Masdar, Torresol Energy, a company that promotes the technological development, construction, operation and maintenance of large scale concentrated solar power plants around the world, will once again attend this year’s World Future Energy Summit, the international future renewable energy conference that will be held from the 16th to the 19th of January in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Both companies, leaders in the cencentrated solar thermal power industry due to their development and application of innovative technology, will showcase their latest achievements, a year after having commercially launched the cutting edge Gemasolar power plant. SENER and Torresol Energy will share a 60 sqm stand. In addition, Santiago Arias, Torresol Energy’s Technical Director of Operations and Maintenance will take part in the lecture "Technology & Innovation".

SENER, which is a leader in the sector both for its technological solutions and for the number of Concentrating Solar Power plants whose engineering and construction it has developed, will bring its latest technological achievements to the trade fair: the HECTOR heliostat cleaning system and improvements to its SENERtrough parabolic trough system.

As for Torresol Energy, it will show off the expertise in solar thermal plant operation and maintenance it has acquired from its experience with Gemasolar, the first solar plant in the world to combine central tower technology with a molten salt storage system. Also on display will be Torresol Energy’s other two projects, Valle 1 and Valle 2, two plants in Cádiz that are about to go on line.

The two companies come to WFES 2012 after a landmark 2011 in which they reached a milestone in the Concentrating Solar Power industry with the commercial launch of Gemasolar, the first solar energy plant of its kind. Gemasolar has paved the way toward new production technology with great potential for technological development and which is also the best hope for decreasing power generation costs.

Due largely to the success of Gemasolar, 2011 has also been a banner year for prizes for both SENER and Torresol Energy. In June, the Gemasolar plant won the CSP Today USA "Thermosolar Innovation" prize, while Torresol Energy won two of the European CSP Today prizes, for "Commercialized Technology Innovation 2011" and "Most Effective Project Development 2011". SENER, for its part, was responsible for all of the engineering and technology for this innovative project, and walked off with the "Engineering Firm of the Year" trophy – an award it won in both the European and US versions – and "Increased Dispatchability Solution 2011" in recognition of the company’s molten salt storage system which makes it possible to generate electricity without sunlight. In the same vein, SENER won the top prize for Innovation in the 2011 European Business Awards, thanks to Gemasolar.

Lastly, Gemasolar was a finalist in the Production category of the 2011 Sustainable Energy European Awards, which recognize projects that involve producing renewable energy or efficient power. In addition, its activity in the municipality of Fuentes de Andalucía has led to its City Hall receiving the Clean Technologies Recognition at the XVII Ones Mediterrània awards, given out each year by the Mediterrania-CIE Foundation.

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