Abu Dhabi : Torresol Energy, a joint venture between Masdar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company, and Sener, a leading international multidiscipline engineering company, with offices in Abu Dhabi, has secured $760 million (Dh2.7 billion) in project finance loans for the construction of its twin concentrated solar power plants — Valle 1 and Valle 2 — in Andalucía, Spain.
The total investment value for the two plants is $1 billion.
Energy solutions
Work on the two 50 MW concentrated solar power plants began in March 2009 and this is the first time that twin thermo solar plants have been built simultaneously.
Both plants incorporate energy solutions developed by Sener, including molten salt thermal storage capacity of up to 7.5 hours.
This means that the state-of-the-art plants will be capable of generating electricity at night and through periods of poor sunlight, enabling a continuous supply of electricity and overcoming intermittency.
Valle 1 and 2, together with the Gemasolar central tower plan, which was project fin-anced in November 2008 and continues to progress construction as expected, represents a total investment by Torresol Energy of $1.4 billion across three CSP projects over the past 12 months.
"With a combined production of 340 GWh per annum, which equates to the clean and safe energy for over 80,000 homes and a saving of 90,000 tons of CO2 emissions every year, Valle 1 and 2 will be leaders in the delivery of concentrated solar power and a major contribution to the region's power supply," said Enrique Sendagorta, Chairman of Torresol Energy.
"A significant feature of these plants will be their ability to produce electricity at night and at times of poor sunlight," he added.
