SENER and Abu Dhabi's $15 billion renewable energy company MASDAR new joint venture Torresol Energy has announced an ambitious solar power innitiative with a mission to develop, build and operate large Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants worldwide.

The company intends to become a recognised worldwide leader in the development of CSP projects and will start its activities on the Spanish market, where several CSP projects are well underway, including plants based on parabolic through technologies. The company is also aiming at developing one additional Central Receiver Tower project in Abu Dhabi in the near future. The goal of Torresol Energy is to launch the construction of at least two large CSP plants every year. The installed base in production would be around 320 Mw over the next 5 years and should approach 1,000 Mw in 10 years. In every new project the company expects to introduce and test new technologies with the long term objectives of making CSP a very competitive and reliable technology, achieving a sustainable leading position in this sector and contributing to the protection of the environment for future generations.

The sun is one of the most promising energy sources to replace the fossil fuels, since solar energy is plentiful, inexhaustible, cost-free and, as opposed to wind power, can be stored. Present solar thermal power technologies are currently applicable in geographical areas with sufficient direct sunshine, such as the Mediterranean zone, the Middle East, the southwest of the USA, Australia, etc., providing a huge potential for this technology. We, in Torresol Energy, are committed to a new future of generation systems based on CSP plants, the primary source of which is inexhaustible and with highly reduced emissions into the atmosphere. The CSP plants, unlike the traditional solar-photovoltaic ones, produce energy by using the sun´s heat instead of using the direct sunlight.

SENER has been working for almost a decade in the development of solar thermal power technology. The company is presently designing and building, in a joint venture, three 50 Mw parabolic through plants with molten salt storage in Spain. SENER has also devised and tested innovative solutions for CSP tower plants and has started the detailed design of Central Receiver Plants. The company expects to apply all these solutions in the projects of Torresol Energy and also for other clients worldwide.