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The corner stone
of the Andasol-I plant was laid on July 20, 2006. This plant, currently
under construction, is planned to go into operation by spring 2008. It is to
be Europe’s largest solar thermal power facility.
The plant is in
eastern Andalusia, in the province of Granada, in the Marquesado de Zenete
in the municipal limits of Aldeire. It occupies 202 hectares, northwest of
km. 313 on the A-92 highway from Guadix to Almería.
The parabolic
trough power plant is being promoted by Solar Millennium and Cobra, and has
been designed to produce 179.000.000 kWh of electricity a year, sufficient
to supply power to a population of 200.000.
The AndaSol-1
solar thermal plant consists of a solar field of 510,120 m² of SKAL-ET type
parabolic trough collectors, a 6-hour (+25 % reserve) molten-salt thermal
storage system, and a Rankine cycle with a 49.9 MWe net capacity.
The plant is
designed for solar-only operation. The solar field is supplies up to twice
the thermal energy that can be absorbed by the steam turbine. This surplus
energy is stored in a thermal salt system parallel to normal operation for
operating the turbine when the solar supply is below design point or when
there is no solar supply at all (storage mode).
In direct
operation mode, the heat transfer fluid (HTF) is circulated through the
solar field to the steam generation system, where steam is produced at a
temperature of 377°C and a pressure of 100 bar. The steam generation system
consists of two parallel heat exchanger trains (pre-heater/steam generator/
super heater) and two, again connected in parallel, reheaters. The HTF fluid
acts as the heat transfer medium between the solar field and the power block,
is heated up in the solar collectors and cooled down while producing steam
in the steam generator. This steam is sent to the power block, where it is
expanded in a steam turbine that drives the electricity generator. The
reheat steam turbine has a 38% efficiency.
On December 27,
2006, the financial closure of the Andasol-II project was achieved. This
plant at current construction is planned to come into operation by autumn/
winter 2008.
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