INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ORGANIZED BY CENER AND CIEMAT TO ADVANCE ON THE TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES OF HELIOSTATS

CENER, the National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain, and CIEMAT organized an international workshop in mid-June that brought together some of the most relevant players in the solar energy sector, mainly related to the research and industry sectors, with the aim of to advance the technological challenges around heliostats and the solar field of concentrated solar tower technology.

In this workshop, held on June 13 and 14 at the Plataforma Solar de Almería, representatives of technology centers and companies gathered with the aim of promoting development and innovation in this key area of the solar thermoelectric industry. The event, organized within the framework of the “Analyze Heliostat Field” project financed by SolarPACES (organization that coordinates the activities of the International Energy Agency in the field of solar thermal energy), was conceived with the aim of promoting collaboration between the different technological centers participating in the project, and thus promote that technological developments are aligned with the current needs of the industry.

Among the participants in this two-day workshop were representatives of Spanish technology and research centers: IMDEA Energía, Tekniker, CIEMAT and CENER, as well as international bodies, such as: Sandia National Laboratories – SNL and National Renewable Energy Laboratory – NREL (USA); Fraunhofer and Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt – DLR (Germany); Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute – ASTRI, Queensland University and Australian National University – ANU (Australia). Likewise, a large number of national and international companies including Acciona, BrightSource, Magtel, Tewer Engineering, John Cockerill, CSP Services, TieTronix and others participated in the workshop.