Held to commemorate the federation's centenary, these awards recognize the world's best engineering projects of the last 100 years.

Madrid, September 26, 2013 – The engineering and technology group SENER has been selected as winner in the awards presented by the FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, for its Gemasolar project, a solar thermal plant owned by Torresol Energy. Held to commemorate the federation's centenary, these awards recognize the world's best engineering projects of the last 100 years. The Gemasolar Plant is one such project and was the winner of an Award of Merit in the Major civil engineering projects category, along with other 11 main constructions from around the world, ‘for its contribution to improve quality of life' as it is written in the prize.

This award is the latest in a number of honors which recognize the uniqueness of Gemasolar, a pioneering project. The plant is capable of producing electricity around the clock using only solar energy thanks to its molten salt storage system. SENER led plant construction and supplied all of its technology; it also owns 60 % of Torresol Energy.

The President of the FIDIC association Tecniberia, Francisco Cal, presented the award to SENER's Infrastructure Department Director, and member of Tecniberia's Managing Board, Jesús Planchuelo. Mr. Planchuelo pointed out the satisfaction that represents to receive this award from FIDIC, which has recognized SENER's effort to innovate with this solar plant. The countless technology that incorporates Gemasolar is the result of a business model based on the ongoing encouragement for innovation. In this sense, it is SENER's mission to provide excellent and innovative projects that give added value to its clients and benefit society as a whole, and to design and build sustainable infrastructures that protect the environment and improve the quality of life of the surrounding areas.

The uniqueness of Gemasolar has previously been recognized by other prestigious awards such as the European Business Award. In October, the plant will celebrate the two-year anniversary of its official launch. During this time, it has generated electricity in amounts that exceed its daily guaranteed level of production, which demonstrates the robustness of SENER's design.

Being a unique solar plant in the world, Gemasolar construction marked a milestone in the CSP sector. In this sense, SENER distinguish itself for venturing into pioneering projects that have never been undertaken before, and the company has the overall capacity to offer a complete engineering and construction package in big civil infrastructure projects and industrial plants, from the basic design to construction, start-up, and operation and maintenance. Among SENER's main references they stand out, in Infrastructures and Transport, the Barcelona metro Line 9, the Sol suburban rail station, in Madrid, the Figueras – Perpignan high speed line, an international project between France and Spain, or the Fontenova stadium, in Brazil; and, in Power and Process, the Gemasolar plant, the Valle 1 and Valle 2 solar plants, also in Spain, the Gate terminal GNL plant, in The Netherlands, or La Cangrejera petrochemical plant, in Mexico.