Spain inaugurates first CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) plant in Europe

http://www.greenprices.com/eu/newsletter/GPBE_46_070405/CSPplant.asp

30 March 2007 – In the Spanish city of Seville the first commercial Concentrating Solar Power CSP plant was inaugurated today. The plant has a capacity of 10 MW and it will generate 23 GWh of electricity per year, which is enough to supply 10.000 people.

The so-called PS10 project produces electricity via 624 movable mirrors (heliostats) of 120 m2 surface each that concentrates solar radiation to the top of a 115 meters high tower where the solar receiver and the steam turbine are located.

Concentrating Solar Power plants use solar radiation as a high-temperature energy source to produce electricity via concentrating heliostats in a thermodynamic cycle. The need for Concentrating Solar Power technology arises because solar radiation reaches the Earth’s surface with a density that is adequate for heating systems but not for an efficient thermodynamic cycle for electricity production.

The PS10 solar plant is promoted by the company Abengoa. The investment costs were € 35 million. The European Union contributed to this investment with € 5 million under the Fifth Framework Programme for research.

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Wind farms provide more electricity to Spanish citizens than any other source.
And they have Penelope Cruz.

The worlds biggest producer of wind generated electricity (in absolute figures) is by far Germany with an installed power of 20622 MW.
(2nd: Spain 11615 MW, end of 2005, source: http://www.wwindea.org/home/images/stories/pdfs/pr_statistics2006_290107.pdf).
The country with the highest fraction of wind energy of total electricity consumption is Denmark with about 20%.
BTW, germany is also the world leader in photovoltaics with the highest installed PV power (http://www.iea-pvps.org/isr/01.htm) and as biggest producer of solar cells and modules. It is also the worlds biggest producer of biogas generated electricity.
These efforts in utilising renewable energies are especially remarkable, when taking into account, that the premises are comparatively bad in Germany, since it is very densly populated, has only few shores and high mountains and has a cool climate.

But they put it in there because most people are too stupid to know what 23 GWh per year means. 23 GWh = 23,000 Mwh = 23,000,000 KWh. Divide that by 365 to get 63,000 KWh per day, or an average of 2,625 KW.

26% capacity loading is quite high for solar. I wonder how much space it takes up total, because obviously those mirrors must have some space between them.