CSP Today talks to Iberese, Siemen´s other half in the construction of Lebrija I, a 50MW concentrated solar thermal Power plant in Sevilla.

The relatively unknown company owns 50% of the project with giant Siemens and is one of those rare EPC companies that have real life experience CSP development & construction.

The plant will be visited for the first time by a contingent of international attendees to the 4th International Concentrated Solar Thermal Power summit in Sevilla (Nov 15-17) following the event.

"CSP Today is a well-known prestigious company and we consider of great interest to be present ourselves as part of CSP Today Sevilla activities and open our doors to those companies interested in seeing a real life CSP plant" said Pedro Núñez, CTO of Iberese and person responsible for the completion of the construction of Lebrija I

Iberese has acted as EPC contractor of the power block, heat transfer fluid, and balance of plant systems for the owner, Soleval. The project started in 2008 and the plant is expected to be ready to synchronize by march 2011.

According to Núñez, "The parabolic receivers have been supplied by the manufacturer Solel, with whom Iberese established a partnership in order to develop the project"

Technical Innovation and experience gained in Lebrija I

The parabolic trough plant being built by Iberese in Seville is a fairly conventional, partly due to the difficulty to get innovations across the financing process. However, Lebrija I has a completely innovative regulatory system with a third HTF loop that "allows a more comfortable, stable and secure operation of the plant and therefore, more profitable"

IBERESE has also carried out a division of each quadrant of the solar field in sectors, by means of valves and actuators, which will provide greater safety to the operation of the plant also will reduce drastically the operating losses in the event of an accident in the heat transfer fluid system occurs.

Logically, the technical expertise gained by Iberese in the implementation of a project like Lebrija I is a very important asset that can be transferred not only to other CSP projects but also to any other project using transfer fluids or power steam turbines features.

But the experience goes beyond the STPP plants: the vast experience Iberese gained in managing a these dimensions project "that requires control of a large team, far superior in number to those made earlier by Iberese". The company now feels ready to deal with other major projects in any field of power generation.

Looking at the bright future

The Iberese team are hoping our experience and skills will serve to make subsequent CSP plants in Spain and abroad. As Núñez puts it, "we are working towards taking our experience in the short term to specific projects, starting with Lebrija II in Spain, and a number of overseas projects that are in various stages of development"


About CSP Today
CSP Today is the leading business intelligence, news and events company focused exclusively on the concentrated solar thermal power industry. For more information please visit www.csptoday.com

For information about the 4th International Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Summit please visit www.csptoday.com/csp

Contact details:

Belén Gallego
Founder & Director
CSP Today
belen@csptoday.com