SENER, the technological group formed by the engineering and construction firm SENER, and Torresol Energy, the company leader in Concentrated Solar Power, a joint venture between SENER and Masdar, the leader future energy company of Abu Dhabi, have been awarded with the US CSP Today awards in the categories of ‘Engineering Firm of the year’ and ‘Commercialized Technology Innovation of the year’ category, respectively.
SENER and Torresol Energy have obtained these awards thanks to their innovations developed in Gemasolar, the first commercial Concentrated Solar Power plant in the world to use central tower technology with a molten salt receiver and thermal storage system located in Fuentes de Andalucía, Seville (Spain). Gemasolar, with a 19.9 MW of power, was commissioned successfully last May.
The winners were released on, Monday June 28 in Las Vegas city, USA, on the celebration of the opening ceremony of the CSP Today 2011 Summit where SENER and Torresol Energy also participate until June 30 in some conferences.
Mercedes Sierra, SENER’s CEO in San Francisco and Felicia Bellows, Torresol Energy’s Vice-president of Development also from San Francisco’s office, picked up the awards.
Mercedes Sierra stated: “this award represents the effort carried out by SENER in these last years to offer the best technological solutions in every area where it develops its activity.”
On her side, Felicia Bellows declared she was “proud of Gemasolar project because, having the first plant of these characteristics in commercial operation, has represented a huge challenge.”
The state-of-the-art technology of thermal handing-over in molten salts developed in Gemasolar allows avoiding the fluctuations in the energy supply thanks to a system able to produce electricity during 15 hours without solar radiation. This system allows, therefore, the generation of electricity 24 hours a day during many months, at night or even when daytime radiation is weak.
SENER has been responsible for providing the technology, the engineering detail design and for leading the EPC and commissioning works of the plant. The technology carried out by SENER in Gemasolar includes innovative solutions like the thermal storage system in molten salts and the central tower receiver.
SENER currently has a portfolio of 20 projects for different clients not only in Spain but also in the rest of the world. SENER’s innovations efforts, both in the central tower receiver and in the parabolic-cylinder technologies are aimed to reduce the electricity generation cost of the Concentrated Solar Power plants.