ACCIONA opens its first CSP plant in Spain, in Extremadura

The 50MW "Alvarado I" plant represents an investment of 236 million euros and will generate enough electricity to supply 28,000 homes.

This is the first Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) facility to come into operation in the Extremadura region, where ACCIONA is currently building a second plant.

ACCIONA has a CSP plant in the Nevada Desert (USA) which has been operating since 2007; it uses the same parabolic cylinder technology as the power plants in Spain.

The 130-hectare Alvarado facility has 184,320 mirrors aligned in rows for capturing sunlight.

ACCIONA has opened its first Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in Spain, in the municipality of Alvarado (Badajoz). The 50 MW facility represents an investment of 236 million euros. The plant uses parabolic cylinder technology, the same as ACCIONA’s ‘Nevada Solar One’ CSP plant, which has been in operation since June 2007.

The official-opening ceremony was presided by the President of the Extremadura Regional Government, Guillermo Fernández Vara, and was attended by ACCIONA Chairman & CEO, José Manuel Entrecanales, the Mayor of Badajoz, Miguel Celdrán, and a number of regional and local officials.

The "Alvarado I" CSP plant covers spreads out over more than 130 hectares, the equivalent of 170 soccer pinches. It has 184,320 mirrors aligned in rows and 768 solar collectors with a total length of around 74 kilometers.

Construction on the plant began in February 2008 and involved shifting more than a million cubic meters of earth. An average 350 people worked throughout the 18-month construction period, and a team of 31 will make up the plant’s operation and maintenance team.

An annual production of over 100m kWh

‘Alvarado I’ will generate 102m KWh of electricity a year, enough to supply 28,000 households. By using a renewable energy source, the plant will avoid each year the 98,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions that a coal-powered plant would use to generate the same amount of electricity.

Parabolic cylinder energy uses rows of mirrors to concentrate sunlight on to collector tubes arranged along the mirror’s focal plane; the tubes contain a fluid which reaches a temperature of up to 400ºC. The fluid is transported to an interchange containing water for producing steam, which in turn drives a conventional turbine connected to a generator for producing electricity.

One of the main advantages of CSP plants is that they are at the peak of their production during the central hours of the day, when the demand for air conditioning in nearby cities is at its highest. As a result, they make an important contribution to covering demand at peak moments.

Four plants in Spain

As well as Alvarado I, which has already been completed, ACCIONA has three other plants currently under construction in Spain: one in Majadas de Tiétar (Cáceres) and two in Palma del Río (Cordoba).

Each one will have an installed capacity of 50 MW, which means that the Company will have a total of 200MW in CSP operating in Spain, in addition to the existing 64 MW installed capacity in the USA.

ACCIONA has applied for planning permission for three other CSP plants in Spain including a second (50 MW) facility in Alvarado and is working on high-profile power projects in the USA and other countries worldwide.

The Company also develops CSP projects for clients and investors interested in this kind of facilities. ACCIONA offers proprietary technology and years of knowhow as a pioneering company in the early days of CSP plants in California (USA), at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Corporate information

ACCIONA is one of Spain’s leading business corporations. The Company operates in infrastructure, energy, water and services in more than thirty countries. Its corporate motto, “Pioneers in Sustainable Development”, reflects the Company’s commitment to contributing to economic growth, social progress and environmental balance. ACCIONA is sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and posted revenues of €12.67 billion in 2008.

ACCIONA Energy is a world leader in renewable energies. It has installed over 7,400 MW of wind power in 259 wind parks in 14 countries across the globe (6,000 MW of which are proprietary), and is a major manufacturer wind generators using home-grown technology. The ACCIONA Energy portfolio includes CSP and PV solar plants, hydroelectric plants, and biomass, biodiesel and bioethanol facilities. It also delivers a comprehensive range of services for clients and investors interested in renewable energy projects