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Spain
thanks to its geographical location and climatic conditions is one of
the best places in the European Union for the installation of solar
thermal power plants,
as it has many hours of sunshine a year, and many clear days for its
Mediterranean climate in a wide part of the country, this coupled with
the large area of the country provide advantages in building solar
thermal power plants, as these require a large area.
Figure 1. Solar radiation map of Spain by provinces.
The
first solar thermal power installations in Spain were carried out in
Andalucia, particulary in Tabernas, Almería in 1981. The receiver was
tower molten sodium type that it reaching temperatures of 520ºC and
generating 0,5 MW electrical with 90 heliostats about a total area of
3700
m2. The molten sodium was used to generate steam which in turn moved a Stirling engine mated to an electric generator. The next solar thermal power plant was also near Tabernas in
1983. The receiver was of type tower and also used water steam to 520 ºC
y 10 bar. of pressure, and generated 1,2 MW electrical with 11.900 m2
of mirror into 300 heliostats. It had a system of molten salt thermal
storage to produce power at night or in conditions of many clouds.
The steam fed directly a turbine, or was sent to heat the molten
salts. During eighties one of these solar towers worked intermittently
for seven years in Manzanares, Ciudad Real province. It came to
produce 50kW. The glazed surface had a diameter of 240 meters and an area of 46,000 m2. The tower was 10 m. in diameter and 195
m high.
Currently
being built many new thermal power plants in the southern half of the
country as shown in figure 2, mainly occur in this area by the
advantages already mentioned above many hours of annual sunshine, fine
weather and availability of land.
Figure 2. Map showing the distribution of solar thermal power plants in Spain.
The establishment of such plants has been aided by a number of reasons such as: policies reducing emissions of CO2,
to be more self-sufficient and try to be less dependent of fossil
fuels, which must import the overwhelming majority and because the sun
is a resource that is widely available in Spain.
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