Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)

The generating systems that have covered the demand for electricity for more than a century are fundamentally based on the consumption of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil derivatives) and nuclear fuels. The disadvantages of these types of energy are, on the one hand, that the primary source of energy is exhaustible and, on the other, that greenhouse effect gases are produced during the generating process.

We in Torresol Energy are committed to a new future of generation systems based on Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants, the primary source of which is inexhaustible and with highly reduced emissions into the atmosphere.

There are currently multiple technologies in existence for using solar light as primary energy source: solar through concentration in thermal fluids, direct water heating, electrical generation through photovoltaic cells, etc. These technologies are aimed at providing different cover for energy demand: high power generation, distributed low power generation, energy consumption at industrial and domestic level, etc.

We have in Torresol Energy concentrated our efforts on technologies for the design, construction and operation of high power electricity generating plants - with various tens of megawatts - intended to form part of the national energy panorama in the medium term.

There are currently two technologies that make it possible to consider high power electrical plants: parabolic trough collector plants and central tower plants.

• The parabolic trough collectors are based on heating a fluid (thermal oil) in a solar field made up of sets of parabolic shaped mirrors, laid out on different horizontal rows. The hot oil is used to vaporise water into steam, which is drawn to a steam turbine and drives a generator that injects electrical energy into the grid.
• Central tower plants are based on molten salts heated in a receiver installed various tens of metres above a tower. The solar field is made up of a set of heliostats that direct the solar light onto the receiver. The hot salts are used again in this case to vaporise water, with an operating configuration equivalent of electricity generation.

Concentrated Solar Power is clean and reliable, has a low relative cost, the capacity of being generated during high demand peaks and the potential for satisfying a country’s future growth needs.