Renovalia is forging ahead with its dish technology projects in Spain

Interview by Rikki Stancich

CSP Today: Can you provide a brief overview of Renovalia's solar thermal Stirling dish technology?

Jaime Galobart: Renovalia Energy’s CSP-3000 Concentrating Solar Thermal system concentrates sunlight, using a proprietary dish parabola (impact resistant glass on a light-weight steel structure), onto a 3 kW free-piston Stirling engine to generate clean, emissions free electricity.

With a very high conversion efficiency, Renovalia’s CSP-3000 will produce up to twice as many kilowatt-hours of electricity than similarly sized crystalline silicon PV systems. 

Renovalia’s dish parabola tracks the sun using a sturdy double-axis tracker and triple redundancy tracking systems; the parabola, designed and engineered in-house, concentrates sun rays into a collector, with very little loss. The high-performance Stirling engine then converts heat into clean electricity. 

All of the components have been designed by Renovalia: metallic structures, Stirling engine, power electronics and tracking systems.

CSP Today: How is progress on Renovalia’s 1MW Casa del Angel project? 

Jaime Galobart: Electrical work has already been completed and major components are in manufacturing.

CSP Today: Renovalia has several other projects in the pipeline for construction in Spain.What is the status of these projects? Are they all eligible for feed-in tariffs?

Jaime Galobart: Renovalia's total CSP Stirling pipeline in Spain adds up to 72MW (already approved in the Spanish thermosolar FIT scheme). 

CSP Today: CSP Dish technology has taken a knock in 2011, particularly in the US. How is Renovalia Energy's technology different - how will it succeed where others have failed?

Jaime Galobart: The main reason other CSP technologies are having difficulty competing is due to the fact that there is no scope for downward scalability (need very large turbines to lower prices, thus requiring multi-MW sites with complex engineering and strong financial hurdles); and high prices (both in EPC and in O&M); as well as low efficiencies.

In essence, other CSP technologies are having a hard time reducing the cost curve sufficiently to compete.

Renovalia believes that, in high DNI areas, and using existing manufacturing capabilities, we are competitive with polycrystalline technologies. 

Regarding the US: current PPA pricing models are very low, and as such technologies that have EPC costs above $3,2 per watt are not viable.

There are many benefits to Renovalia's technology in comparison to competing CSP systems (such as parabolic troughs). CSP systems are best suited for areas of the planet where the sun shines the strongest  – areas where, normally, water is a scarce commodity. While other competing systems employ vast quantities of water Renovalia’s technology does not use water for cooling or for any other purposes, for that matter.

Renovalia’s technology does not require flat land. Many other CSP systems require extensive tracts of very flat land (a 100MW parabolic trough system with no accumulation will need up to 200 flat ha.), which is not easy to come by (other then embarking on expensive civil works). CSP-3000 will follow the slopes and contours of the land without a glitch.

The system does not require heavy maintenance. Most 50MW parabolic trough systems can employ up to 50 people, among engineers, technicians and maintenance personnel. Renovalia Energy’s CSP-3000 can be operated by a small team of 5 people. 

More importantly, because the systems are individual, an outage of one parabola does not bring the whole electric generation plant down (consider a failure of the turbine in competing systems; or a break in the 100 kilometers of piping in a standard 50MW parabolic trough facility).

The system is quick and easy to install. CSP-3000 Stirling engines are sealed and lightweight. Installing them does not require large cranes or heavy machinery. The patented parabolas are designed in a lightweight (yet sturdy) steel panel configuration and can be quickly erected. There are no complex balance-of-plant issues - deployment is fast and flexible. Each system outputs 3kW, making scalability easy and cost effective (from 3MW to 200MW; it’s just a question of installing more parabolas).

The systems have a shorter build time. Because the systems are simple, small and easily maneuverable (small trucks and cranes are required), and also owing to the fact that land does not have to be flattened (reducing civil works), installation can be cut to one-third of the time, thus reducing costs while accelerating revenues.

Renovalia believes that renewable energy technologies have to compete with traditional energy plants – same price but better fuel independency and more care for the planet. Renovalia is working hard to bring the price down on its systems, utilizing industrial scale manufacturing plants or increasing the efficiency of the hardware. CSP-3000 increases cost effectiveness and increases returns on solar assets – that simple.

Renovalia CSP-3000 systems operate at much higher efficiencies than other CSP technologies. As we have always said, Renovalia believes in using the best solar solution for each location. Currently, CSP is competing with very low PV prices, and therefore must better the LCOE of polycrystalline panels.

CSP Today:  Is Renovalia Energy looking to expand into foreign CSP markets? If so, which ones?

Jaime Galobart: Our current efforts are concentrated in developing our 72MWs in Spain. Once these projects are complete, Renovalia will expand aggressively into foreign markets. India and South Africa are on our radar.

To respond to this article, please write to the Editor:

Rikki Stancich: rstancich@csptoday.com