Gemasolar is a plant promoted by the company Torresol Energy, located in the Fuentes de Andalucía area in Seville, whose technological innovations have been developed by Sener.
This recognition, awarded the 12th of April, is within the framework of the initiative ¨European Union Sustainable Energy Week¨, an event which seeks to promote sustainable energetic policies in community countries, and is participated in by the European institutions associated with the European Campaign for Sustainable Energy.
Between the 11th and the 15th of April, the ¨European Union Sustainable Energy Week¨ (EUSEW) will take place with the celebration of hundreds of events coordinated by all of Europe which intend to show, promote, debate and celebrate energetic efficiency and renewable energy. Within these celebrations, the 12th of April, the awarding of the Sustainable Energy Europe Awards will take place in Brussels, in a ceremony presided over by the EU Energy Commissioner, Günther H. Oettinger.
These annual awards distinguish the best European initiatives within the field of energetic sustainability. A total of 309 initiatives are competing this year in six different categories. The Gemasolar project was nominated, along with another three candidates, for the Production category award, which awards those projects implying the generation of renewable energy, or efficient energy production.
Gemasolar is a plant promoted by the company Torresol Energy, located in the Fuentes de Andalucía area in Seville, whose technological innovations have been developed by SENER, which also leads the construction of this state-of-the-art plant. Its new technology, which significantly increases the plant’s efficiency, implies a starting point within the cost reduction strategy in the thermosolar energy industry, a key objective of both SENER and Torresol Energy in order to make clean energy a firm alternative to fossil fuels.
Gemasolar is the first commercial plant in the world with central tower receiver technology and a molten salt heat storage system. This system allows to continue producing energy throughout 15 hours without sunlight; in other words, at night or during cloudy weather. Due to its advanced technology, Gemasolar, a less than 20 MW plant, manages an annual production similar to a 50 MW thermosolar plant’s without thermal storage. Additionally, thanks to this storage capacity, a clean source such as solar energy can become manageable, as it is capable of supplying the network according to demand, something which, up until today, has been a pending task within the field of renewable energies. Once in operation in the next months, Gemasolar will be capable of supplying clean and safe energy to 25,000 homes, and of reducing CO2 emissions by more than 30,000 tons per year.
The technological relevance of Gemasolar, the flagship project of the engineering group, has received numerous international recognitiions, and today is Torresol Energy’s hallmark.
