CSP World

A new research facility for central receiver concentrated solar thermal power systems has become a reality, Spain’s Advanced Technology Center for Renewable Energy (CTAER) has announced the tower is complete.

The Variable Geometry Solar Test Facility is comprised by a tower with a rotating receiver platform, and a solar field of heliostats, which move around the tower over rails.

The platform, which will hold the receivers, has been placed atop the tower, a 3500 kg (7716 lbs.) weight and 8 meters diameter concrete platform, was lifted by a 700 tons crane. It’s a rotating platform, the first of its kind in the world, whose bearings have been designed and manufactured especially for this facility.

The solar field is not composed by heliostats, like other plants, but by “heliomobiles”, which move around the tower over rails.  Many of them have already been placed and some aiming tests have been made.

“The progress of the works are in time, and maybe it’s completed three months earlier than expected, when we will start the tests” has stated Valeriano Ruiz, president of CTAER.

The construction is being carried out by Abengoa, a pioneering and a world leader in CSP technology in Tabernas, Almeria (Spain) next to the Solar Platform of Almeria, a pioneering research center for concentrated solar systems.