The PS20 solar power plant (PS20) solar power plant is a

solar thermal energy Solar thermal energy (STE) is a form of energy and a technology for harnessing solar energy to generate thermal energy for use in industry, and in the residential and commercial sectors. Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United St ...

plant in Sanlucar la Mayor near

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

, Spain. It was the world's most powerful solar power tower until the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California became operational in 2014. The 20

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

(MW)

solar power tower A solar power tower, also known as 'central tower' power plant or ' heliostat' power plant, is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive focused sunlight. It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors (called heliostats) to focus the sun's r ...

produces electricity with large movable mirrors called heliostats. Construction of PS20 was started in 2006 and it commenced operation in 2009. It features several significant technological improvements over the earlier PS10. These include a receiver with higher efficiency, various improvements in the control and operational systems, and a better thermal energy storage system. "PS20 consists of a solar field of 1,255 mirrored heliostats designed by Abengoa Solar. Each heliostat, with a surface area of , reflects the solar radiation it receives onto the receiver, located on the top of a tower, producing steam which is converted into electricity by a turbine generator." "The remaining power plants will be built over the next few years. They will include low- and high-concentration photovoltaic, tower thermoelectric, parabolic-trough collector and Stirling dish plants. Abengoa Solar's parabolic trough plants, Solnova 1, 3 and 4, which can generate 150 MW of power, are under construction at the Solar Platform." Resulting from cooperation between Ciemat, the IDAE, and the

University of Seville The University of Seville (''Universidad de Sevilla'') is a university in Seville, Spain. Founded under the name of ''Colegio Santa María de Jesús'' in 1505, it has a present student body of over 69.200, and is one of the top-ranked universi ...

, the whole plant is to be completed by 2013, when it will produce approximately 300 MW – energy for around 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville. PS20 produces about 48,000

megawatt-hour A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a Units of measurement, unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 Joule, megajoules (MJ). Kil ...

s (MW·h) per year, for which it receives €271 (US$360) per MW·h under its

power purchase agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...

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Telvent develops control system for new solar power plants in SevilleFinal technical progress report
for

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

officials (November 2006)
Power station harnesses Sun's raysPower tower reflects well on sunny Spain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ps20 Solar Power Tower Solar power stations in Spain Solar thermal energy Energy development Energy in Andalusia

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References

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