Spain has become a hotbed for groundbreaking technology. The country has been going about the task of redefining how the world thinks of solar power. They have moved away from the mundane approach of panels placed in strips. Just outside Seville, panels have been placed in a circle of steel and glass, making for an effective and striking aesthetic.
A circle of solar power in Spain using salt storage solutions
It all started with a project called Gemasolar, a world first that saw a commercial plant using molten salt storage and a central tower receiver. This has become a symbol of how concentrated solar power can be used as a complementary system that stores heat directly. Spain has now taken this idea further with a new plant.
This second plant will be 110 MW and is expected to be producing power before the end of the year. It can store and send out power at any time of the day, which is a shift away from intermittent renewables. For a nation looking to cut down its emissions and move away from relying on coal, this is a timely move.
Spain’s Solgest-1: A revelation in the works
Solgest-1 is a large and sprawling solar field comprising 2,650 heliostats—mirrors that track the sun all day, arranged in a wide circle around a monolithic receiver. Each mirror is about 1,200 m², which reflects the concentrated rays of the sun onto the top of the tower where molten salts capture the heat.
The project has an expansive reflective surface. The heliostat field covers 310,000 m². That translates to roughly 3,336,000 ft², or the size of dozens of football fields stitched together. Unlike standard solar fields, the idea here is not simply to use the sun’s rays for electricity. The heat is bottled in a way, and so it can be used for power whenever needed. Solgest-1 can also meet the demand it may face really well, as it can keep generating well into the night.
Midnight is the new peak hour in Spain
Traditional solar grids struggle with renewables as solar output dips dramatically at the end of the day, which is usually when people tend to need more electricity. The molten salts used are heated to more than 560°C, and Solgest-1 can keep thermal energy stored for up to 15 hours.
For Spain, and potentially for other countries watching closely, this is a preview of how renewables can take on the heavy lifting once left to fossil fuels and how solar can be more than just a backup or secondary solution when applied in this manner. Spain is also fortunate enough to have an abundance of sunshine, which never hurts projects like this, but also, the country’s latitude has seen Spain become ground zero for advancements in solar power.
A decade of development is reaping benefits
Sener, the engineering organization behind Gemasolar and Solgest-1, has been leading the charge for the better part of a decade, foregrounding revolutionary outlooks when it comes to tower construction, mirror design, and salt chemistry. They seem to get better with each project. This has garnered the attention of other nations from as far as the Middle East, North Africa, and even China, which are looking to emulate this work.
Solgest-1 may be a striking piece of technology that has the world watching, but it won’t ever be the main attraction for tourists. But energy designers are transfixed by the capability and what this enterprising system could mean for energy solutions around the world. 2,650 mirrors and a refreshing approach to solar power only allude to the next projects to be born to the minds of Spain’s brightest, which are probably going to be even better prospects than this.
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