Torresol Energy launches commercial operations of twin solar-thermal plants in Spain  

Torresol Energy S.A. (Madrid, Spain; www.torresolenergy.com), a joint venture (JV) between Sener Ingenierˇ˝a y Sistemas (Sener; Madrid, Spain; www.sener.es) and Masdar (Abu Dhabi; www.masdaruae.com) says that the Valle 1 and Valle 2 plants — two identical 50-MW parabolic trough plants, located in Cadiz, in the South of Spain (photo below), have commenced commissioning on January 2012. The plants are equipped with thermal storage which will allow them to continue to produce power, even when there is no solar radiation, for up to 7.5 hours. Construction on Valle 1 and Valle 2 began in December 2009, and was completed in December 2011. In January 2012 the plants were connected to Spanish national grid for commercial operations. Roughly 4,500 workers worked over 2,700,000 hours to build and launch the twin projects during the two construction years. Sener led the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the two projects, as project manager, and has provided 100% of the technology and engineering for both plants. From the outset, the two plants were built sequentially, including processing various types of supplies, overseeing multiple contractors, providing quality control of the execution and, above…