Energy Headlines

The Southern Spanish city of Seville will be host to the first commercial concentrating solar power plant in Europe. The 11 MW plant inaugurated today and partly financed with European Union funds, has been designed to produce 23 GWh of electricity a year - enough to supply a population of 10.000. This production of solar electricity avoids the emission of about 16.000 tonnes of CO2 each year.

These new technologies give Europe a new option to combat climate change and increase energy security while strengthening the competitiveness of the European industrial sector and creating jobs and growth", said Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, on the occasion of the inauguration of the plant.

The so called PS10 project produces electricity via 624 movable mirrors (heliostats) of 120 m2 surface each that concentrates solar radiation to the top of a 115-m- high tower where the solar receiver and the steam turbine are located.

The PS10 solar plant is situated 25 km west of the city of Seville and is promoted by the company Abengoa. The investment costs amounted to ?35 million, with a contribution of ?5 million from the European Union's Fifth Framework Programme for research awarded for its highly innovative approach.

The project execution took 54 months, from 1 July 2001 to 31 December 2005. PS10 is the first of a set of solar electric power generation plants to be constructed in the same area which will total more than 300 MW by 2013. More...

Source: EU Energy Research Press Release