Honoured for outstanding contribution to climate-friendly power generation; underlining the growth potential for solar thermal power plants
Solar Millennium, based in Erlangen, Germany, has won the internationally renowned Energy Globe Award. The distinction was awarded for the initiation and development of Europe's first parabolic trough power plants, the Spanish Andasol power plants. The prize awarded honours the projects' innovative character and its major contribution to climate protection.
The Andasol projects are a group of three solar thermal power plants in Andalusia, southern Spain. The first project has been under construction since 2006 and goes into operation this year, the second will be connected to the grid next year and construction on the third project is to start this year. Each solar power plant will supply environmentally-friendly electricity to up to 200,000 people, cutting down on 149,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year compared to a modern coal fired plant. These are the first parabolic trough power plants in Europe as well as being the largest solar power plants in the world each with solar fields of over 510,000 sq. meters of collector surface.
It was the outstanding contribution made by the Andasol projects to climate-friendly power production that convinced the jury and which was the deciding factor for the 10,000 euro Energy Globe Award in the "Fire" category, awarded to innovative projects for environmentally-friendly power production. The greatest growth potential for the parabolic trough technology used in the Andasol power plants has been shown to be in the earth's Sun Belt countries. Solar thermal power plants are able to make a decisive contribution to converting global energy systems to a regenerative basis.
The worldwide significant and renowned environment prize was founded in 1999 as the "World Energy Globe Award for Sustainability". Since then, international projects which spare resources and/or use renewable energy sources have been awarded. The goal of the Energy Globe Awards is to present successful projects to a broad public. Around 800 projects and initiatives enter the competition every year, which are awarded in the categories of Earth, Fire (electricity), Water, Air and Youth. The Energy Globe Awards prize-giving ceremony takes place every year in the form of a worldwide broadcast television gala.
The Andasol projects were selected from over 800 submissions. The award ceremony, which took place at the European Parliament in Brussels, was graced by the presence of Nobel Peace Prize winner Michail Gorbachev along with the president of the EU Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering, the president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and the Slovenian prime minister and EU Council president Janez Janša.
Solar Millennium's technology director, Dr. Henner Gladen, was delighted with the announcement of the jury's decision: "We are proud and thrilled to receive the Energy Globe Award. It confirms the outstanding potential of our technology. The Andasol projects have provided a worldwide signal for the market development of solar thermal power generation. It is now the joint task of the economic and political sectors to accelerate the implementation of the worldwide conversion to power generation based on sustainable fuels."
Together with its subsidiaries, Solar Millennium specialises in parabolic trough power plants - a reliable, proven technology in which the company is a worldwide leader. The company covers all major business sectors of the value-added chain for solar thermal power plants, from project development to technology and turn-key construction of power plants, to the operation and ownership of power plants. In Spain, Solar Millennium developed Europe's first ever parabolic trough power plants, two of which are already under construction.
Solar Millennium initiated the Spanish parabolic trough power plants Andasol 1 to 3 and has completed the project development successfully. Andasol 1 has been in construction since 2006 and will be connected to the grid this year. The sister projects will go into operation in 2009 and 2010, respectively. With the Andasol power plants, solar thermal energy generation will be realized for the first time in Europe on a large-scale power plant level. The projects set an example in several ways.
By using thermal tanks, the power plants are able to make electricity available in a planned way - also at night - almost doubling the operating hours compared to solar power plants without tanks, thereby creating new opportunities for solar electricity generation. With the Andasol projects, the largest worldwide location for the use of solar energy is also at hand. Each of the 50 Megawatt power plants has a collector area of 512,000 square meters and provides up to 200,000 people with solar energy. In summer, the Andasol power plants will also help to meet peaks in demand in the Spanish power grid that are caused primarily by the high energy consumption of air conditioning units.
Solar Millennium has plans for projects with a capacity of several hundred Megawatts located worldwide, with the focus upon Spain, the USA, China and North Africa.
Solar Thermal Power
Solar thermal power plants generate electricity using heat energy captured from solar radiation. In a parabolic trough power plant, trough-shaped mirrors concentrate the sun's rays onto a pipe in the focal line of the collector. Their absorption heats a transfer fluid in the pipe, generating steam in the power block by way of heat exchange. As with conventional power plants, the steam is utilised in a turbine to generate power, and by integrating thermal storage, this power can be supplied on demand. Thus, solar power plants can also generate electricity after sunset.
