Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Siemens Energy Receives Major Order for Solar Receivers from Spain, Predicts $26 Billion Annual Market for Thermal Solar Power by 2020

Siemens Energy has received an order to supply solar receivers to Spain. Purchaser is a consortium between ABANTIA and COMSA EMTE, which will act as EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) to develop a solar thermal power plant in Les Borges Blanques in the province of Lleida in Northeastern Spain. Siemens will deliver the solar receivers UVAC (Universal Vacuum Air Collector) which will be employed in the solar field. The start up of the solar plant is foreseen to be in 2012.

"This is the first major solar power component purchase in Spain subsequent to the release of the most recent Royal Decree," said Avi Brenmiller, CEO of Siemens Concentrated Solar Power Ltd. "Siemens is in a position to offer highly efficient solar receiver and system solutions, such as solar fields or power blocks, as well as complete plant solutions for parabolic trough power plants. Our objective is to address the project-specific needs of our customers in the most flexible way.”

Until 2020, the market for solar thermal power plants will show annual double-digit growth rates and attain a volume of over $26 billion (EUR20 billion). In the future, the primary focal growth regions will be North Africa, South Africa, Middle East, Australia, India, Spain and the U.S.. Siemens has announced investments in Israel for expansion of capacity for the production of solar thermal components and will create over 150 new green jobs. The new facility is expected to go on-line in 2012. “This expansion of production capacity in Israel will enable us to meet the increasing demand for solar thermal components ", added Brenmiller.

More than 150,000 UVACs have been successfully installed in power plants in commercial operation in Spain and the United States. Thanks to high-tech coatings, the UVAC absorbs the maximum possible solar energy, which is then converted into steam to run a steam turbine. It features extremely high solar absorption and reduced heat loss (emissivity), thus significantly increasing the cost-effectiveness of a solar thermal power plant. The power block and the solar field equipped with highly efficient receivers are the key systems of every parabolic trough power plant. These power plants have the best track record of all utility-scale power generating solar technologies.

Products and solutions for solar thermal power plants are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2009, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about $30.69 billion (EUR 23 billion), making Siemens the world's largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, the company’s products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 210 million tons. This amount equals the combined annual CO2 emissions of New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin.

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