Egypt’s first large-scale solar thermal facility, located at they country’s Kuraymat project site, 100km south of Cairo, has now received its final collector. The parabolic trough solar field is to be constructed by Flagsol in Cologne, the technology company jointly owned by Solar Millennium and Ferrostaal, based in Essen.
Flagsol designed the solar field and supplied the controls for the solar field as well as being responsible for supplying important key components, inclding the parabolic mirrors and absorber pipes. Almost 2,000 collectors with mirrors covering 130,000m2 have been assembled and installed in the solar field. Each unit is 12 metres long and six metres wide. The heat transfer circuit for the entire solar field should also be commissioned successively starting in April, 2010.
The 150MW capacity hybrid power plant, which uses both natural gas and solar energy to generate electricity, is being built on behalf of the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority NREA. The plant was put out to international tender with a total cost of more than €250 million, about 30% of which is allocated to the realisation of the solar field.
Flagsol and Orascom Construction Industries will run the solar part of the power plant for two years after commissioning, before it is finally handed over to the owners. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has granted a US$50 million subsidy for the solar field due to the project’s status.
Klaas Rühmann, Flagsol’s project manager said, “Our team is keeping good time. Cooperation with our Egyptian partner has worked very well. All employees are happy to have played a part in enabling this large solar plant. It is a reference project for the entire region. Commissioning of the overall power plant can begin as soon as the conventional power block has also been completed.”
Dr. Thomas Thaufelder, MD at Flagsol said, “Of course we are quite proud that our pioneering work has been able to make a mark in Egypt – also in view of the implementation of the Desertec concept. An important goal of the international industry initiative Dii is to generate solar power for use in the North African states before it is exported to Europe. This initial project can soon demonstrate the successful implementation of this goal.”
