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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Europe’s largest concentrated solar thermal platform online
20/9/2023
News
Europe’s largest concentrated solar thermal (CST) platform and thermal storage unit was recently commissioned in Belgium. Meanwhile, the UK’s largest solar array on a restored landfill area was also brought online.
Located at a packaging and materials production plant in Turnhout, Belgium, the newly commissioned CST facility features 2,240 surface mirrors, with a solar field peak yield of 2.7 GWh thermal power, and six thermal storage modules with a capacity of 5 MWh thermal power.
The platform covers about 5,540 m2 and is claimed to contain the largest installation of parabolic mirrors combined with thermal energy storage in an industrial setting in Europe.
It will provide heat equivalent to 2.3 GWh of gas consumption, reducing the packaging and materials production plant’s greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 9% annually, according to plant operator Avery Dennison. During summer months and high-sunshine periods, it will provide up to 100% of the factory’s heat demand.
The project is a collaboration with Azteq; EnergyNest, a thermal energy storage (TES) provider; and local community group Campina Energie.
The CST platform concentrates energy from direct sunlight into a collector tube filled with absorption liquid, like thermal oil. High-temperature thermal energy from this process is stored in thermal batteries and dispatched on demand, day or night, as secure, green heat to run the factory’s drying ovens.
It is also planned to have sheep graze the fields and grass beyond the mirror installation. ‘Solar grazing’ is a common practice as part of ‘agrivoltaics’ and is used for solar and PV installations as a way for both industries to utilise the same ground.
Commenting on the CST platform’s inauguration, Tinne Van der Straeten, Belgian Minister of Energy, said: ‘Investments in innovative renewable energy sources, like this project in Turnhout, will lower our carbon output and have a positive effect on climate change.’
UK’s largest solar array on a restored landfill area
Meanwhile, global resource management company Veolia has commissioned 59MWp of renewable electricity capacity at what is claimed to be the UK’s largest solar array on a restored landfill area. Capable of generating electricity equivalent to the demand of over 15,000 homes, the site at Ockendon, in Essex, has been developed with technology provider REG Power Management.
The site utilises around 107,000 bi-facial solar modules, each rated at either 540Wp or 545Wp. These modules absorb light on both sides to maximise the power density and are linked to inverters that convert DC to AC electricity. This is then fed to the grid via an on-site 132,000 volt transformer that is connected to the nearby Warley substation.
The ‘Powering Up Britain: Energy Security Plan’, published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (NESNZ) in March 2023, commits to a fivefold increase of solar capacity in the UK from 14 GW to 70 GW by 2035. This implies a project on the scale of Ockendon being installed roughly every five days from now until the end of 2035, notes Veolia.
The new solar array in Ockendon, UK, features 107,000 bi-facial solar modules and is claimed to be the country’s largest solar array on a restored landfill area
Photo: Veolia
