By Kari Williamson

The two identical 50 MW parabolic trough CSP installations are expected to produce 320 GWh of solar power per year, and are equipped with thermal storage extending their power production with up to 7.5 hours.

SENER led the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the CSP projects, and the plants were built sequentially, including processing various types of supplies, overseeing multiple contractors, providing quality control of the execution and, above all, planning and supervising construction as it progresses.

Enrique Sendagorta, President of Torresol Energy, says: “With these twin plants in Spain, Torresol Energy completes the first stage of our Strategic Plan. We now have three plants up and running, Valle 1 & Valle 2 and Gemasolar, in the South of Spain, and a proven track record that we can operate and carry out the maintenance of CSP plants both in power tower technology and parabolic trough technology. We expect to start soon on other CSP projects in different countries located in what is referred to as the sun-belt region.”

The General Manager of Torresol Energy, Alvaro Lorente, adds: “It is worth mentioning that, due to the financial strength of Torresol Energy’s partners, SENER and Masdar, the Valle 1 and Valle 2 projects were financed through seven Spanish commercial banks in 2009 for a total financing of €540 million, despite the global financial crisis. This operation was awarded the Project Finance Deal of the Year 2009 in the Clean Energy Sector by EuroMoney.”