ACS-Cobra__EXTRESOL-1

CSP_case study

Student: Paula Lopez Gonzalez

Tutor: Yasser Tufail SolarEnergySeminar

ACS-Cobra__EXTRESOL-1 Torre de Miguel Sesmero (Spain)

EXTRESOL-1

Thermo solar Power Station, located in Torre de Miguel Sesmero (Spain)

ACS is the company which create the first synchronization of its 50 MW thermal solar power plant “EXTRESOL-1” to the Spanish grid.With EXTRESOL-1 connection, ACS-Cobra becomes the world leader in commercially operating STE (CSP) plants, which a total operating capacity of 150 MW.

ACS Group

This plant has a 7.5-hour molten salts storage, which allows a wide dispatchability possibilities to adapt this operation to the grid demand.

The ACS Group is a worldwide reference in the construction and services activities. A group taking part in the development of key sectors for the economy such as infrastructures and energy.A company committed to the social and economic progress of the countries in which it is present.The success of the Group's performance is based on an efficient organization and a dynamic and entrepreneurialmanagement, implemented through successive processes of mergers, takeovers and strategic plans committed to client’s satisfaction as well as to maximizing profitability for ACS shareholders.

The construction of Extresol-1 will demand more than 350 people working, and once it has finished, its operation and maintenance will create another 35 working places for qualified people, professionals of maintenance, operators and technical workers.The plant will give electricity facilities to 30.000 houses, which means a reduction of 149.000 tons of CO2 emission per year.

Group Charges, the company that manage the project, will invest in Extresol-1 300 million Euros.

The plant will take place on an area of 225 hectares, where will be 624 collectors in 510.120 m2.

ACS-Cobra__EXTRESOL-1

Thermo solar Power Station, located in Torre de Miguel Sesmero (Spain)

The type of CSP Technology used is Parabolic troughs.This system works concentrating solar radiation by following the sun.The trough is aligned on a north-south axis, and rotated totrack the sun as it moves across the sky each day .The direct solar radiation affects on the pipe. These pipes are filled with a fluid of heat transfer, usually synthetic oil, which could reach a temperature of 400ºC for the solar radiation.Following the Sun from East to west, the collectors reflect and concentrate the direct solar radiation eighty times more on the focalline of the pipe´s surface.

Heat transfer fluid (usually oil) runs through the tube to absorb the concentrated sunlight. This increases the temperature of the fluid to some 400°C.The heat transfer fluid is then used to heat steam in a standard turbine generator. The process is economical and, for heating the pipe, thermal efficiency ranges from 60-80%.The overall efficiency from collector to grid, i.e. (Electrical Output Power)/(Total Impinging Solar Power) is about 15%, less than Stirling dish concentrators.

The amount of energy directed toward a short length of pipe is fairly modest by power plant standards, and as a consequence, the fluid absorbs only a modest amount of energy per unit length of pipe, but because the troughs are so long, the cumulative effect is substantial.

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