Acciona, leader in renewable energy: wind energy, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV)

Concentrated Solar Power – also referred to as Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSP) – is one of ACCIONA Energy’s business lines and one of the renewable technologies with the best growth potential.

ACCIONA Energy is a unique renewable energy operator on a global scale. It focuses exclusively on renewables and is a major player in five types of clean energy: wind, concentrated solar thermal power (CSP), PV solar, hydraulic and biomass. It has 100% ownership of nearly 8,500MW’s worth of installed capacity, with a total output of more than 20TWh/year, as well as installing a further 1,500MW of capacity for third parties. ACCIONA Energy is present in the entire value chain, from project development and engineering; construction and manufacture of wind turbine generators, to the operation and maintenance of facilities and energy management and sales. The Division is backed by 20 years of experience in a sector that has seen the emergence of many newcomers, and it has successfully undertaken a process of international expansion that has given it a presence in more than twenty countries worldwide.

 

At 30 September 2013, ACCIONA Energy had installed a total 8,631 MW of wind power in 295 parks located in 16 countries, with a total of 7.818 wind turbines.

Of this figure, 7,159 MW are owned by the company (6,291 MW attributable) and 1,472 MW have been installed for clients.

66% of the wind power capacity owned by ACCIONA is located in Spain and represents around 20% of the total for the country. ACCIONA wind parks overseas account for the remaining 34%, a market share that will gradually increase over the next few years.

In 2012 ACCIONA Energy produced 17,376 GWh from wind power, a annual growth rate of 17%. Attributable production in the same period was 15,165 GWh, up 19% on 2008.

Wind power represented 85% of ACCIONA’s entire power production last year (81% of attributable production).

60% was for the Spanish market with 9,518GWh, and the remaining 40% was for other countries: Mexico (2,180 GWh), USA (1,959 GWh), Australia (984 GWh), Canada (538 GWh), Germany(269 GWh), Portugal (278 GWh), India (208 GWh), S.Korea(196 GWh), Italy (188 GWh), Greece (111 GWh), Poland(67 GWh) and Hungary (54 GWh).

As of 3Q2013, ACCIONA’s wind power generation was increased by 4.5% up to 13,051 GWh (62% in Spain and 38% in other countries). It represents 80% of total Acciona’s generation in the period.

ACCIONA Windpower is part of the ACCIONA group and specializes in the design, manufacture, field assembly and marketing of wind turbines using proprietary technology.

Boosted by ACCIONA’s experience as an operator of wind parks worldwide, ACCIONA Windpower has taken a few years to position itself among the world’s top wind turbine manufacturers.

The AW wind turbine has played a major role in this progress. This robust and reliable machine is designed to meet the requirements of wind park operators who demand the best possible performance throughout the turbine’s working life.

ACCIONA Windpower produces turbines of 1500 kW and 3000 kW rated power, of which it has assembled or received orders for more than 5,400 MW in 17 countries on four continents.

ACCIONA Windpower is present in the world’s main markets, with production plants in Spain, the US and Brazil. We combine our position as a global supplier with a strong local presence and customer-focused service, delivering direct attention and an agile and tailored service across our entire client base.

 

 

ACCIONA Windpower has developed wind turbines in the power ranges most demanded by the market. This allows it to meet growing and diversified demand in the sector.

AW wind turbines, in their 1.5 MW and 3.0 MW versions, share the same distinguishing features: reliability, durability, proven technology and design aimed at a profitable investment throughout the working life of the machine. We have the best solution for every site with rotors up to 125m diameter on concrete or steel tower up to 140 high at hub level.

These are just are some of the outstanding technological features of the AW turbine family:

• MV generation.
• Dual support from the main shaft to reduce the load on the gearbox.
• Variable speed with independent hydraulic pitch control for each blade.
• Control software for intelligent automatic operation.
• A predictive maintenance system with sensors in the most critical components.

 

Concentrating Solar Power

Concentrated Solar Power – also referred to as Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSP) – is one of ACCIONA Energy’s business lines and one of the renewable technologies with the best growth potential.

 

ACCIONA was the first Spanish company with an operational CSP plant with solar trough technology: the Nevada Solar One (NSO) facility in the Nevada desert (USA).

Grid-connected in June 2007, the 64 MW facility exceeded production forecasts by 9% in its first year in service. The satisfactory experience acquired with NSO is a guarantee for new projects in the Spanish and US markets, and also for the capital markets.

In Spain, ACCIONA Energy has invested around 1,200 million euros in five 50 MW plants in five years. The first was grid-connected in September 2009, two were completed in the last quarter of 2010, the forth was finished in July, 2011 and the fifth one became operational in August, 2012.

These five plants alone in Spain will use a clean and inexhaustible energy source – the Sun – to produce enough electricity to power more than 133,000 homes. This will avoid the emission of 421,000 metric tons of CO2 a year, with a cleansing effect on the atmosphere similar to that produced by a forest of 21 million trees through the process of photosynthesis.

On February 2011, ACCIONA S.A. sold a 15% stake in ACCIONA Termosolar S.L. to Mitsubishi Corporation. ACCIONA Termosolar S.L., a holding company of ACCIONA Energy, owns the first four ACCIONA’s CSP plants installed in Spain.

Home-grown technology

CSP plants saw considerable development in the US between 1985 and 1991; during that period nine facilities were installed in California’s Mojave Desert, with a total capacity of 354 MW.

The problems that have emerged since then (for a number of reasons) are now being overcome through a new strategy aimed at encouraging the installation of renewable energy sources, both at federal and state level.

ACCIONA has proprietary technology in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of CSP plants, the most consolidated renewable energy in the market. The technical team at Nevada Solar One – part of ACCIONA Solar Power – took an active part in the facilities previously installed in California and has a track record of experience in the field.

In CSP plants, the solar field is equipped with parabolic cylinder troughs that concentrate the sun’s rays onto collectors (mirrors) located on the focal line, through which a fluid circulates and heats up to high temperatures. This fluid is then used to produce steam, which drives a conventional turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity.

CSP plants have the advantage that their maximum production takes place in the middle of the day, when electricity demand is usually higher.

ACCIONA Energy now has six concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in operation. The first one, Nevada Solar One (Nevada, USA), with 64 MW, was followed by five other plants in Spain: Alvarado (Badajoz), Majadas (Cáceres), Palma del Río II and Palma del Río I (Córdoba) and Orellana (Badajoz), all of them with 50 MW.

The company thus has currently an operational capacity of 314 MW.

Concentrating solar power implemented by ACCIONA Energy (cumulatively to 30/09/2013, in MW)

	TOTAL (property + customers)	Property	Attributable
Spain	250.00	250.00	250.00
Other countries	65.00	64.00	64.00
TOTAL	315.00	314.00	314.00

 

Nevada Solar One

Key facts:

• Location: Boulder City, Nevada (USA)
• Technology: CSP; parabolic trough.
• Commissioned: June 2007.
• Capacity: 64 MW.
• Approximate annual production: 136 GWh.
• Equivalent consumption: 15,000 households.
• CO2 emissions avoided: 129,000 metric tons/year (in coal
• fired power stations).
• Surface area: 130 hectares.
• Length of troughs: 76 kilometers.
• Investment: 250 million dollars.
• Power utility customers: Nevada Power Company and Sierra Pacific Resources.
• Jobs: 400 (average) in Construction and 30 in Operation.

Significance:

Nevada Solar One is the biggest CSP plant installed in the world in the last 19 years and the third biggest in absolute terms behind the two 80 MW facilities constructed in the Mojave desert (USA)in the early 1990s. It represents the re- emergence of a technology that will play a major role in the US energy system and in large parts of the world with sufficient solar resources.

Strategic importance:

Nevada Solar One has made ACCIONA a world leader in CSP. The plant’s construction and operation, with production 9% higher than forecast in the first year of operation, has been a key experience in order to undertake new projects in this technology.

 

The CSP (solar thermal) technology applied by ACCIONA has demonstrated its high energy production capacity since it entered service.

The Nevada Solar One facility, grid connected in June 2007, produced 136 GWh during its first full year of operation (2008), an increase of 9% over initial forecasts.

The plant continues to function satisfactorily, taking into account differences in the varability of solar irradiation.

Nevada Solar One was joined by Alvarado I (September, 2009), Majadas (November, 2010), Palma del Río II (December, 2010), Palma del Río I (July, 2011), and Orellana (September, 2012), all of them in southern Spain.

In 2012 ACCIONA Energy’s CSP generation reached 596GWh, 31% up from the previous year due to the new facilities put into service. As of 3Q2013, the power generation from CSP amounted to 475 GWh.

ACCIONA Energy is a leader in the field of photovoltaic solar power thanks to its pioneering work in the expansion of this technology in Spain and its experience in the construction of large photovoltaic plants.

The company has worked since 1996 on the design, construction, operation and maintenance and application procedures for photovoltaic plants. It has installed 69 MWp in Spain – mostly for customers – among which we would highlight the so-called ‘huertas solares'(solar gardens).

Outside Spain the company has built (and owns and operates) a 45.8 MWp plant at Amareleja (Moura, Portugal), one of the the biggest ones in the world with solar tracking. It was grid connected in December 2008, and the Japanese group Mitsubishi Corporation has acquired a 34% stake in the company that owns the plant.

On May 2012, the Department of Energy of South Africa selected two projects presented by ACCIONA and Aveng in the second round of the Independent Power Producers Renewable Bid (IPP REBID). The installations are a 135.2 MW wind park (138 MW nominal capacity) and a 74 MW photovoltaic solar plant (94 MWp), which will be built between 2013 and 2014.

‘Huertas solares’

As well has owning solar PV plants, the company also develops facilities for other companies. It has created and popularized the concept of huerta solar (solar garden), an innovative (and patented) way of exploiting energy, allowing private individuals to invest directly in small PV plants that become their property but are grouped together on a single site.

The 19 solar gardens developed by ACCIONA Solar in Spain (which come to a total 61.80 MWp) have drawn interest from more than 3,500 buyers, who invested a total of approximately 456 million euros. This is probably the highest investment in renewables made by individuals in Spain through a single company.

The owners have solar trackers and panels of different capacity, depending on the model chosen. Locating the equipment on a common site to share infrastructures and services allows cost reductions, better performance, improved safety and lower operation and maintenance costs.

All the solar gardens feature Buskill solar trackers – home-grown technology – that increase production by around 35%. Other ground-breaking technological features include an inverter that brings togther in a single unit he control system for solar monitoring and all electrical devices.

ACCIONA Solar service includes end-to-end management of solar gardens: e.g. billing, administrative arrangements and the control of the production of each owner. Owners can keep a watch on daily, monthly and annual production online.

 

Hydraulic

The Company has worked on upgrading and taking full advantage of the value of obsolete small hydro power stations, as well as constructing new plants. Our extensive experience in upgrading and construction covers not only the evaluation of the resource, but also the design, construction, operation and maintenance.

The incorporation of hydro assets acquired from Endesa in 2009 as part of ACCIONA’s sale of its stake in the Spanish utility boosted our hydropower capacity. This technology now ranks second in our installed capacity after wind power, with 912 MW operational.

ACCIONA’s hydroelectric power stations are controlled from our Renewables Control Center, located in Navarre, in close coordination with our different area centers, which makes for more efficient management of the facilities.

 

Biomass

ACCIONA Energy is present in the field of biomass with three proprietary operational plants with a total capacity of 57 MW. These are the Sangüesa Plant (Navarre), which entered into service in 2002, and the plants at Briviesca (Burgos) and Miajadas (Caceres) which were grid-connected in the last quarter of 2010. All of them are a benchmark in the development of biomass for power generation in Southern Europe.

ACCIONA has considerable experience in the biomass sector, both in terms of the supply logistics of the fuel (through long-term contracts with farmers, agricultural cooperatives and straw-market professionals) and through the operation of electricity generating plants. This enables the Company to guarantee supply and product prices.

The Company also puts its experience at the disposal of clients interested in the construction of this type of facility.