Masdar commissions Spanish solar power unit

Masdar Power, one of the five integrated business units of Masdar, Abu Dhabi's renewable energy initiative, announced the commissioning of its joint venture Torresol Energy's Gemasolar concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Spain during a media briefing at Masdar City Tuesday. Torresol Energy is a joint venture between Masdar and SENER, a Spanish engineering and construction firm. The 19.9MW Gemasolar CSP plant, which has a central tower receiver, has begun the initial supply of electricity to 25,000 homes in the Andalusía region of Spain. When fully operational, it will help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions by more than 30,000 tonnes a year. The technology behind this allows solar power to be stored and thus electricity to be produced even during hours of darkness or poor daylight in winter. Largest offshore farm Among Masdar Power's other international projects is the 1GW London Array offshore wind farm, the 6MW onshore wind farm in the Seychelles, the Valle 1 and 2 Torresol projects in Spain and Masdar PV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Masdar that produces amorphous silicon thin film photovoltaic modules eight times larger and more powerful than the industry standard at its plant in Germany. Torresol Energy's Valle 1 and Valle 2, the two 50MW plants, are both under construction in southern Spain. The two 50MW CSP plants, totalling 100MW, in Andalusía, Spain are being built at a total investment value of $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion). "Overall the three projects in Spain amount to about €1 billion (Dh5.23 billion)," said Frank Wouters, Director at Masdar Power. Construction of Masdar's joint venture London Array is on track with the first of 175 foundations currently installed. Set to become the world's largest offshore wind farm, the project will comprise up to 341 wind turbines and be rated at 1,000MW, producing enough energy to power a quarter of Greater London homes (750,000 homes) and displace the emission of 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. When fully operational, London Array will make a substantial contribution to the UK government's target of providing more than 15 per cent of all electricity supply from renewable sources by 2015. Masdar's Seychelles wind power project, the 6MW onshore wind farm, is currently at the tendering phase. Masdar Power, which focuses on solar energy and wind power, has been mandated to build and operate large scale renewable energy power projects that would enable Abu Dhabi to achieve 7 per cent of its total generation capacity from renewable energy sources by 2020. Photovoltaic project To achieve that, Masdar Power is currently working on a number of projects which include Shams One concentrated solar power (CSP), Noor One solar photovoltaic (PV) and Sir Bani Yas onshore wind project. The Shams One project, the largest CSP plant in the Middle East, which is being built in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, is set to go online during the third quarter of 2012. The $600-million project will have an installed capacity of 100MW. So far, 45 per cent of the project has been completed, Mohammad Al Za'abi, General Manager of Shams Power Company PJSC, told reporters yesterday. Noor One, the 100MW photovoltaic plant in Al Ain, is the second local solar project for Masdar Power. "We're in an early stage of defining the project. We have not obtained approval yet so we will go through a procedure like we go with any other project. We have to define the project, know what the costs are and then obtain approval," Wouters said. "That will take the rest of this year to arrive at a better stage so we can be a little more firm on his project." Masdar Power's third local project is in Sir Bani Yas Island, located 250km southwest of Abu Dhabi city. The onshore wind farm is currently in the tendering phase.