Egypt’s First Solar-Thermal Plant Goes Into
Operation in Kuraymat
Jan 10, 2011- Pangea - worldofrenewables.com
In Kuraymat, roughly 100 kilometers south of Cairo,
a major solar-thermal power plant is going into operation
for the first time in Egypt.
•Solar Millennium’s subsidiary Flagsol
has delivered the technology for the region’s
first solar-thermal plant
•
Hybrid power plant with 150 MW capacity will use
solar energy and natural gas and can be operated
around the clock
•
Commissioning as an important indication that the
DESERTEC concept can be realized
In Kuraymat, roughly 100 kilometers south of Cairo,
a major solar-thermal power plant is going into operation
for the first time in Egypt. The solar field consists
of parabolic trough collectors with an overall surface
area of 130,000 m² and is part of a hybrid power
plant that will use both solar power and natural
gas to generate electricity. In the scope of starting
up operations, the last few days saw the entire solar
field being directed at the sun and the heat energy
being fed into the heat exchanger in the power block
for the first time.
The solar technology for this reference project
has been provided by Flagsol GmbH, a subsidiary of
the Erlangen-based company Solar Millennium AG (74.9
percent, ISIN DE0007218406) and Essen-based Ferrostaal
AG (25.1 percent). Flagsol designed the solar field,
delivered the control for the solar field and was
responsible for supplying important key components,
primarily the parabolic mirrors and absorber pipes.
The solar field was built and is put into operation
in cooperation with the Egyptian company Orascom
Construction Industries. The Kuraymat hybrid power
plant will have an overall capacity of 150 megawatts
of electricity, which will be generated using solar
power and natural gas. In an assembly hall on the
site, skilled Egyptian workers had assembled mirrors
with a total surface area of around 130,000 m².
The collectors, which were six meters high, were
subsequently installed in the solar field in rows
of parabolic trough mirrors several hundreds of meters
long. All 2,000 collectors in the solar field are
automatically directed towards the position of the
sun.
The Kuraymat site benefits from more than 2,400
kilowatt hours of solar irradiation per square meter
and year on average. The solar irradiation, which
is channeled to parabolic-shaped mirrors, is reflected
onto an absorber pipe in the focal line of the collector.
The vacuum-isolated absorber pipes contain a circulating
heat transfer fluid, which is heated up to 300-400
degrees through the concentrated sunlight. The heat
transfer fluid is then pumped into the central power
block and the thermal energy coming from the solar
field is converted into electrical energy.
“The hybrid power plant can be operated without
interruption, thereby supplying electricity 24 hours
a day, seven days a week,” explains Matthias
Strub, Technical Project Manager at Flagsol. “It’s
the first plant of its kind in Egypt, which makes
it an important reference for future investments.”
Oliver Blamberger, member of the Executive Board
of Solar Millennium, also underscores the importance
of the project: “With Kuraymat we’ve
shown that electricity from the deserts of North
Africa is no longer dream of the future. Our technology
is proof that the DESERTEC idea can be realized,
as can the successful European-African cooperation
in the field of renewable energy.”
The hybrid power plant in Kuraymat was tendered
internationally and commissioned by the Egyptian
energy authority NREA. The overall cost came out
to more than € 250 million, 30 percent of which
went to realizing the solar field. Given the fact
that the project can serve as an example for future
projects, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has
provided a grant of around US$ 50 million for the
solar field. The generation of electricity and the
feed-in into the Egyptian grid are to start at the
beginning of 2011, as soon as the conventional part
with the turbine has also gone into operation. After
the start of operations, Flagsol and Orascom Construction
Industries will operate the solar part of the power
plant for two years before ultimately handing it
over to the owner.
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