The financing obtained by Torresol Energy (the joint venture between Masdar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company, and SENER, a leading international multidiscipline engineering company) for the construction of the Valle 1 and Valle 2 Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants (in Cadiz, Andalusia) has received the ‘Deal of the Year 2009’ award in the ‘Clean Technology’ category, as part of the ‘Project Finance Deal of the Year’ awards given by the Euromoney agency, which publishes the sector’s reference journal, Project Finance. This is one of the most important prizes in the field of structured financing in Europe. The award, which has been presented in London on 11 February, is in recognition of the work of Torresol Energy, as the project sponsor, and of the senior lenders, Banco Santander, La Caixa, BBVA, Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), Caja Madrid, Banco Español de Crédito and Banco Popular Español, as well as the law firm Latham & Watkins, which acted as legal advisor to Torresol on the transaction.

The financing obtained totalled €540 million over 20 years. The seven financial institutions acted as “Mandated Lead Arrangers” in this agreement, which guarantees the construction of the twin Valle 1 and Valle 2 plants — the total investment for which reaches €700 million — and which will be completed by 2011. Once operational, the plants will have a thermal storage system with a capacity of over 7.5 hours, they will supply safe, clean energy to 80,000 households, and will reduce CO2 emissions by 90,000 tonnes per year.

The Project Finance awards are the first in the industry, and began 11 years ago. On average, 300-350 of the best deals for a given year are entered for the awards, selecting the best in different industrial sectors. Torresol Energy has won the award in the ‘Clean Technology’ category, where the innovative technology of the Valle 1 and Valle 2 solar plants has been recognised.

The financing of the Valle 1 and Valle 2 plants is in addition to that obtained previously for Torresol Energy’s flagship project, the Gemasolar solar thermal plant, which obtained dual financial backing in November 2008, from various banking institutions, and in November 2009 from the EIB. Work on the construction of this plant in Seville, with 17 MW of power and a production of 110 GWh per year, is progressing on schedule. With these three solar thermal projects, Torresol Energy has made total investments of €1,000 million over the last year.

The award goes to the Gemasolar thermosolar plant that Torresol Energy is building in Fuentes de Andalucía, in the province of Seville, the first commercial plant in the world with tower and main receiver technology that uses the molten salt storage system. Gemasolar presents multiple innovations, developed by SENER, which make it a ground-breaking plant, including the solar field that surrounds the tower to improve the performance of the 2,650 heliostats; the salt system, used as a heat transfer liquid and as a storage system, the latter boasting 15 hours of capacity; the high performance two axes drive for heliostats; a complex system of control of the plant's main subsystems; a receiver whose thermal power is three times that which is used in other solar projects; and a pumping system capable of raising the salts 140 metres at temperatures of 565°. Moreover, plant operation is guaranteed for 25 years. Gemasolar opens up the way for a new thermosolar generation technology, as it will serve as a model for other plants with salt receiver towers, whose technology is clean and reliable, is relatively low-cost, and has the ability to produce electricity for major peaks in demand and the potential to cover the country's growing needs. For all these breakthroughs, Torresol Energy was awarded the CSP Today award. 

Torresol Energy played an active part at this event with the intervention of the Technology Director, Juan Ignacio Burgaleta, with the presentation "Gemasolar: Tower and molten salt receiver technology".

SENER is also participating with a sample of the real part of the two axes drive for heliostats. Furthermore, SENER engineer Soledad Garrido will be participating today in the round table session with the talk entitled 'CSP supply chain in depth - the key development".