The president of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Manuel Chaves, and the co-chairmen of Abengoa, Felipe and Javier Benjumea, inaugurated the new Solar Platform in the municipality of Sanlucar la Mayor (Seville) last week.

The 11 MW plant 25 kilometres west of Seville, took more than four years to build, from July 1, 2001 to December 31, 2005. It is only the first in a much larger plan to build solar power in the region.

The 300 MW Sanlucar la Mayor Solar Platform will be completed by the year 2013 and, utilizing a wide range of solar technologies will produce sufficient energy to cover the consumption of some 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville. The project requires a 1,200 million euro investment(1.6 billion US dollars). This project will prevent the emission of more than 600,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year. The first two power plants to be brought into operation at the Sanlucar la Mayor Solar Platform are the PS10, the world’s first tower technology solar thermoelectric power plant constructed for commercial operation, and Sevilla PV, the largest low concentration system photovoltaic plant.

The 11 megawatt PS10 solar power plant will generate 24.3 GW/hr per year of clean energy and comprises 624 heliostats, each of a 120 square meter surface area and a 115 meter tower. When in operation, the heliostats track the sun all day to maximize solar collection. The solar radiation is reflected onto a receiver located on the upper section of the tower and the same harnesses the energy it receives to produce steam that is run through a turbin to produce enough energy to supply some 6,000 homes. This power plant alone will prevent the emission of 18,000 tons of CO2 per year.

The Sevilla PV plant comprises 154 silicon plate heliostats that produce electricity from solar radiation. This 1.2 megawatt photovoltaic facility will prevent the emission to the atmosphere of 1,800 tons of CO2 per year.

The remaining Sanlucar la Mayor Solar Platform power plants will be stagger-constructed over the next six years to convert the Platform into a diverse technology macro-project that will include tower thermoelectric, parabolic-trough collector, Stirling dish, and low and high concentration photovoltaic plants.

The PS20 tower technology solar thermoelectric 20 megawatt plant, similar to the PS10 plant and a parabolic-trough collector demonstration plant are currently under construction. The latter’s technology is to be utilized in the 50 MW Solnova 1 plant, on which construction is due to commence in early April, and the 50 MW Solnova 3 plant, the construction of which will commence during the course of the second half of the year.

Abengoa’s Sanlucar la Mayor Solar Platform will contribute enormously to the economic development of the municipalities of the Aljarafe district as it will enable the creation of more than 1,000 jobs associated with the Platform’s manufacturing and construction phase, as well as a further 300 service and maintenance jobs for the array of power plants.