Name and Location
Xina Solar One parabolic trough plant project, Northern Cape, South Africa.
Client
Abengoa (40%), with the balance of the project being held by the Industrial Development Corporation, the Public Investment Corporation and the KaXu Community Trust.
Project Description
The project involves the development of a 100 MW parabolic trough plant, with a five-hour thermal energy storage system using molten salts. This project will form the largest solar complex in Africa together with Abengoa’s plant KaXu Solar One project that is currently under construction in the country.
Parabolic trough technology employs parabolic-shaped mirrors that are set on a structure so that they can track the movement of the sun and concentrate solar radiation onto a receiving tube. Inside the tube, a heat-absorbing fluid flows and reaches high temperatures. This fluid transfers the thermal energy to a heat exchanger that heats water into steam, which ultimately drives a turbine to generate electricity. The plant also uses thermal energy storage technology that, with a set of thermal storage tanks filled with molten salts, enables the plant to generate electricity after the sun sets or in transitory cloudy periods, in addition to being able to adapt energy production to the peaks of demand.
Xina Solar One will produce clean energy equivalent to that needed to power an estimated 90 000 households, thus preventing the emission of 315 000 t/y of carbon dioxide. Additionally, the construction, operation and maintenance of the plant will stimulate regional socioeconomic development by creating numerous direct and indirect jobs, as well as a supply chain that will foster economic growth in the country.
The project has been selected as one of 17 preferred bidders in the Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.
Value
Not stated.
Duration
Xina Solar One’s construction is expected to begin in 2014.
Latest Developments
None stated.
Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.
On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.
Contact Details for Project Information
Abengoa communications department, Patricia Malo de Molina Meléndez, tel +34 954 93 71 11 or
email communication@abengoa.com.