Abengoa Solar says that construction of two advanced solar power plants in Spain is 50 per cent complete and on track to be completed by early 2012.
The Helioenergy 1 and 2 plants are being built by a joint venture of Abengoa and Germany’s E.On, and are due to enter service at the end of 2011 and early 2012, respectively. They will use parabolic trough technology of the type already used in other concentrating solar power (CSP) plants such as the Solucar platform in Spain.
News of progress at the Helioenergy site in the town of Éjica, near Seville, came as the Spanish firm announced that another of its CSP plants in Spain – Solnova 4 – had commenced commercial operation. Abengoa Solar now has a total of 193 MW of CSP capacity in operation.
Solnova 4 is a 50 MW facility located at the Solucar platform in Seville. It uses parabolic trough technology that includes “significant design enhancements” over earlier parabolic trough CSP plants.
Helioenergy 1 and 2 will add a total of 100 MW to Abengoa’s operational capacity when they come on-line. The company has another 250 MW of CSP capacity under construction around the world.
E.On bought into the Helioenergy project in late 2009 in a bid to expand into the CSP sector.
