Andasol 1 is officially inaugurated

Today Europe's first ever parabolic trough power plant, Andasol 1, is being officially inaugurated under the patronage of the president of the Junta de Andalucía

Today Europe's first ever parabolic trough power plant, Andasol 1, is being officially inaugurated under the patronage of the president of the Junta de Andalucía. In December 2008, Andasol 1 was connected to the grid and supplies up to 200,000 people in southern Spain with environmentally friendly electricity. With a collector surface of more than 510,000 square meters - equalling the area of 70 soccer fields - Andasol 1 also is the world's largest solar power plant. For the first time ever, large thermal storage facilities are being used, enabling the plant to even generate solar power after sunset.

Andasol 1 was developed by Solar Millennium AG, which specialises in solar-thermal power plants, and constructed by the Spanish ACS/Cobra Group. The project company for Andasol 1 is a joint venture by ACS/Cobra (75%) and Solar Millennium (25%). Solar Millennium's subsidiary Flagsol contributed the technology for the solar field. In the immediate vicinity of Andasol 1, the solar power plants Andasol 2 and 3, which are basically identical in construction, are being built. At present Andasol 2 is in the start-up phase; Andasol 3 will be connected to the grid in 2011. The entire gross power production capacity of the plants will total about 540 GWh per year. Thus, the plants will supply more than half a million people with power and save roughly 450,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year.

The power plants will mainly cover peak demand within the Spanish electricity supply system in the summer months. The high electricity demand is primarily caused by the high energy consumption of air-condition units. Each power plant has 50 megawatts of electric power and thermal storage facilities. A full storage unit guarantees additional power generation of about 7.5 hours - also at night. Each thermal storage facility consists of two tanks that are 14 m high and 36 m in diameter and can hold 28,500 tons of molten salt.

About Solar Millennium AG: Solar Millennium AG, Erlangen, is an international company in the renewable energy sector, with its main emphasis on solar-thermal power plants. Together with its subsidiaries, the Company specializes in parabolic trough power plants, a proven and reliable technology with which the Group has adopted a leading position worldwide. Solar Millennium covers all important business sectors along the value chain for solar-thermal power plants - from project development and technology to turn-key construction as well as plant operation and investments in power plants. In Spain, Solar Millennium developed Europe's first parabolic trough power plants and realized them with its partners. Additional projects are planned around the world with an overall capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts. The current regional focus is on Spain, the US, China and North Africa. Furthermore, the Company has the aim of achieving market readiness for the so-called Blue Tower technology for the generation of product gas that is rich in hydrogen through the reformation of regenerative residual materials, and also for solar chimney power plants in the long run. More information is available at www.SolarMillennium.de.

About solar-thermal power plant technology: Solar-thermal power plants generate electricity by converting solar radiation into heat energy. In a parabolic trough power plant, trough-shaped mirrors concentrate the incidental radiation onto a pipe in the focal line of the collector. Its absorption heats a fluid heat medium in the pipe, generating steam in the power block through a heat exchanger. As in conventional power plants, the steam powers a turbine to generate electricity. By integrating thermal storage, electricity can be supplied on demand, even after sunset.