The Valle Solar Power Station is a two adjacent twin 50 MW solar thermal power plants (Arcosol-50, also Valle 1 and Termesol-50, also Valle 2, was Vallesol-2) in

San José del Valle San José del Valle is a municipality located in the province of Cádiz, southern Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Ta ...

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, near the border with the

Arcos de la Frontera Arcos de la Frontera () is a town and municipality in the Sierra de Cádiz comarca, province of Cádiz (province), Cádiz, in Andalusia, Spain. Location Arcos de la Frontera is 64 km N-E of Cádiz and 35 km E-N-E of Jerez de la Front ...

(north) and the

Jerez de la Frontera Jerez de la Frontera () or simply Jerez, also cited in old English-language sources as , is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Sp ...

(west) municipalities, in the

comarca A ''comarca'' (, , , ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain, and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, mark ...

of the

Campiña de Jerez Campiña de Jerez (the Jerez countryside) is one of the six ''comarcas'' (county, but with no administrative role) in the province of Cádiz, southern Spain. The present-day ''comarca'' was established in 2003 by the Government of Andalusia. Mun ...

(the Jerez countryside), a county with no administrative role. The station generates power using

parabolic trough A parabolic trough collector (PTC) is a type of solar thermal collector that is straight in one dimension and curved as a parabola in the other two, lined with a polished metal mirror. The sunlight which enters the mirror parallel to its plane of ...

technology. It became operational in January 2012. The Valle plant is owned by

Torresol Energy Torresol Energy is a company dedicated to developing renewable energy and alternative energy, alternative energies, focusing on concentrated solar energy. It is based in the city of Getxo in Biscay, Biscay Province (''Vizcaya''), in the Basque C ...

, a joint venture between SENER (60%) and the

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company Masdar (Arabic: مصدر‎), also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, is an Emirati state-owned renewable energy company. It was founded and chaired by Sultan Al Jaber in 2006 as a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company. The compan ...

(40%). It was built by SENER between December 2009 and December 2011, at a cost of €540 million (US$700 million). Construction on Valle 1 and Valle 2 began in December 2009 and was completed in December 2011. Roughly 4,500 workers dedicated over 2.7 million labor hours over the two years of construction until the plants were commissioned and connected to the Spanish national grid. Each 50 MW_e has the capacity to supply 160 Gwh of safe, clean power per year, to supply 40,000 homes. Together they reduce emissions by 90,000 tons every year. Their molten salt storage system allows them to continue producing electricity even without solar radiation. In addition to providing a manageable source of clean power, they can also supply electricity to the power grid based on demand. The power station consists of two adjacent plants, Valle 1 and Valle 2. Each one has a

nameplate capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, maximum effect or gross capacity,SENER SENER is a private engineering and technology group founded in 1956. Specializing in activities related to Engineering and Construction, it has industrial holdings in companies working in the areas of energy, environment, and aeronautics. SENE ...

collectors creating solar fields of 510,120 square metres on a total surface area of . Net electrical output for each section is expected to be 160

gigawatt-hour A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a common ...

s (GW·h) per year. Each plant will have a

molten salt thermal storage Thermal energy storage (TES) is the storage of thermal energy for later reuse. Employing widely different technologies, it allows surplus thermal energy to be stored for hours, days, or months. Scale both of storage and use vary from small t ...

system containing 28,500 tons of

molten salt Molten salt is salt which is solid at standard temperature and pressure but liquified due to elevated temperature. A salt that is liquid even at standard temperature and pressure is usually called a room-temperature ionic liquid, and molten salts ...

(60%

sodium nitrate Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt (chemistry), salt is also known as Chile saltpeter (large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile) to distinguish it from ordi ...

/ 40%

potassium nitrate Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula . It is a potassium salt of nitric acid. This salt consists of potassium cations and nitrate anions , and is therefore an alkali metal nit ...

), capable of storing enough heat to generate 750 MWh of electricity — enough to operate at full power for 7.5 hours without sunshine. Valle 1 and Valle 2 use SENERtrough parabolic trough collector technology, which concentrates solar radiation into a central collector tube with circulating

thermal oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

. They also have high precision optical sensors which track the sun from east to west. The hot oil is used to vaporize water, which through expansion in a steam turbine, propels a power generator that sends power to the electrical grid.

References

External links

* {{Energy in Spain Solar power stations in Spain Solar thermal energy Energy in Andalusia

See also

References

External links