A delegation of diplomatic representatives accredited in Spain visited the world’s most advanced solar-thermal plant, in an event organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation as part of the initiatives to promote the Spain brand. The 21 representatives from around the world visited Abengoa’s Solúcar Platform and the Gemasolar solar-thermal energy plant of Torresol Energy in the province of Seville.
The visitors included diplomatic representatives from Germany, Algeria, Belgium, Cyprus, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, USA, France, Ghana, India, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Holland, Pakistan, Portugal, United Kingdom, Russia, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Solar-thermal energy represents a major opportunity for Spain thanks to its current global leadership in this field due to the abundant solar resources in southern Spain, considered to be the highest quality in Europe, and as one of the few manageable renewable technologies that is not intermittent.
The solar-thermal market is experiencing strong international growth led by Spanish companies. At present, the leading Spanish companies in the solar sector are developing and operating projects all over the world, positioning themselves as global leaders in this field and exporting technology, goods and services to countries such as the USA, Mexico, Chile, Morocco, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, India and South Africa.
Abengoa’s Solúcar Platform in Sanlúcar la Mayor (Seville) is the largest solar platform in Europe and the largest solar R&D+i center in the world. It has four solar-thermal towers and various plants based on other technologies that annually generate enough energy to supply 94,000 homes and prevent the emission of more than 114,000 tons of CO2. It also has a research and development area that includes various demonstration plants for new technologies.
Gemasolar is the first commercial-scale plant in the world to use molten salt heat storage technology with a central tower receiver and a field of heliostats to create an efficient system that can continuously produce electricity for 15 hours without sun. This feature makes it the only solar-thermal plant in the world that can currently supply electricity for 24 hours uninterrupted.