Solutia Inc. (St. Louis, Mo.) announced today that it will be supplying Therminol VP-1 synthetic heat transfer fluid to a new 470 MW, hybrid solar plant in Ain-Ben-Mathar, Morocco and a 170 MW, hybrid solar plant in Hassi R’Mel, Algeria. Each plant will have 20 MW of power output capacity from solar, thermal oil-based, parabolic-trough collector fields and are being constructed by Abener. They are currently slated to begin producing electricity in 2010. The announcement follows a number of significant projects in 2009 in which Therminol announced it would supply solar power plants globally.
Therminol heat transfer fluid is used in the trough-shaped mirror assemblies to absorb concentrated sunlight and heat up to about 400 degrees C. The heated Therminol is used to generate steam that drives power generating turbines.