50-MW Abengoa Parabolic Trough Plant Starts Operation

The start up follows the successful completion of the operation and production testing conducted over the course of three days. Solnova 1 is made up of 980,000 square feet of mirrors that cover an area totaling approximately 280 acres.

The plant employs technology which concentrates solar radiation onto a heat-absorbing pipe inside of which flows a liquid that reaches high temperatures. This fluid transfers its energy to the water vapor that reaches a turbo-generator, where it expands to produce electricity.

The Solnova 1 plant incorporates parabolic trough technology developed by Abengoa Solar and has integrated significant design enhancements, including the Abengoa Solar-developed ASTRØ parabolic trough collector which ensures far superior precision thanks to its design and exclusive process of construction and alignment.

Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar, emphasized that reaching theoretical design capacity during production testing constitutes a significant milestone.

“Our technological progress and accumulative expertise have enabled us to reach our goals much sooner than we had anticipated. We will use this experience in the two 280 MW CSP plants planned for the United States in Arizona and California,” he said