Innovative configuration of a fully renewable hybrid CSP plant
The European Project HYSOL has celebrated its successful completion with a public event in which the solar demonstrator was shown to the public.
The past 22 June, 2016, the European Consortium HYSOL celebrated the successful finish of their European Project in the Cobra T&I research centre at the Manchasol Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant, which was carried out during the last three years.
The objective of the project has been to development a prototype HYSOL, the key element for future solar capable of hybridizing CSP technology with other energies (renewable and fossil) so as to be able to supply energy to the electrical network in a stable, firm and manageable way, independent of meteorological circumstances. Thanks to the prototype, the technology has been technically, economically and environmentally validated so that the HYSOL energy plants are ready to be implemented on a commercial scale.
International representatives of the CSP and renewable energy sector, such as investors, engineers, representatives of private institutions and equipment suppliers as well as national and international authority figures all participated in the celebrated event. Jose Alfonso Nebrera (General Director of the ACS Industrial), Alberto R. Rocha (Director of Innovation) and Lucia Gonzales Cuadrado (Coordinator of the project HYSOL) presented the technology developed by the consortium and the advances reached using the design of the pilot plant. At the same time, the event permitted the main actors involved in the sector to interchange their impressions of the HYSOL technology in reference to its commercial potential and integration into future hybrid CSP plants.
Presentation of prototype Hysol at ACS-Cobra facilities in Manchasol.
HYSOL is a project co-financed by the European Commission and lead by the Spanish business ACS-Cobra. It counts on the participation of eight partners from European countries, including the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA-CIEMAT, Spain), la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM, España), Enea (Italia), IDIE (España), Aitesa (España), Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (Dinamarca) and SDLO-PRI (Holanda). By celebrating this event, the consortium puts an end to the phase of validating the technical, economical and environmental results of the theoretic models contrasted with the operating prototype.
The project HYSOL intended to implement an innovative way of CSP hybridization with fossil (natural gas) or renewable (biogas, biomethane, combination gases) based fuels on a commercial level. This concept of hybridization permits an optimal management of the electrical production with an elevated portion of solar energy (up to 74% in the studied locations), conversion efficiency and an excellent flexibility in the operation to be achieved, which means a better economical, technical and environmental generation process from renewable sources.
The auxiliary fuels employed in the plant are integrated with a CSP system by means of an aeroderivative gas turbine in a way so that the plant reaches electrical generation efficiency similar to combined cycles. The thermal energy of the escape gases produced by the gas turbine is recuperated thanks to HYSOL which takes advantage of this energy in order to heat the melted salts from the storage system which are sent directly to the vapour generator or are stored for later use when there is not enough solar resources to meet the demand.
For sure, the achievement of the project HYSOL means a step forward in the development of CSP plants, opening up possibilities to promote new hybrid plants that permit us to surpass the barriers that the CSP plants currently have in terms of cost and management of the electrical production.
All the relative information regarding the project can be found on the web site www.hysolproject.eu and on Cobra T&I’s Youtube channel (http://youtu.be/i69s5zWkVzM).