Novatec Solar wraps up 30-MW CSP plant in Spain

Oct 9, 2012 - German concentrated solar power (CSP) firm Novatec Solar last week unveiled the start-up of the 30-MW Puerto Errado 2 solar thermal power plant in southern Spain which uses the company's solar field technology.

Novatec Solar acted as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the facility, which it says is the largest operational CSP plant based on linear Fresnel collector technology in the world, having a mirror surface of 302,000 square metres (3.25 million sq ft). The solar farm is expected to generate about 50 million kWh per year, enough to supply 12,000 Spanish homes and offset more than 16,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, Novatec Solar calculates. It will sell power under Spain's feed-in tariffs.

The company for the project, Tubo Sol PE2 SL, is owned by several Swiss utilities, with Elektra Baselland holding a 51% stake and Novatec Solar with 15%.

Guido Belgiorno-Nettis AM, chairman of Novatec Solar's shareholders committee, said that the commissioning of the plant confirmed the competitiveness and scalability of the company's Fresnel technology and added that together with Swiss-Swedish engineering group ABB (VTX:ABBN, STO:ABB), Novatec Solar looked forward to continuing to introduce its technology into its target markets. ABB took a 35% stake in Novatec Solar in March last year.

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