FACILITIES

The PSA is located in southeastern Spain in the Tabernas Desert, at 37º05’27.8 ’’ North Latitude and 2º21’19 ’’ West Longitude. It receives an annual direct normal insolation between 1900 and 2000 kWh/m2·year, with a value of 1970 kWh/m2.year in its Typical Meteorological Year. The yearly annual average temperature is around 17 ° C.

With these conditions, the PSA offers researchers and companies of the sector optimal conditions and unique scientific equipment that is among the most complete and diversified of all globally existing for the development, evaluation, demonstration, and knowledge transfer of solar technologies.

Clicking on the picture you can download the current brochure of the Plataforma Solar de Almería.


The PSA is formally constituted by 28 large experimental facilities and 10 laboratories. The facilities are those listed below:

    Installations based on Cylinder-Parabolic technology
    • The 1.8 MWt DISS test loop, which is an excellent experimental system for the investigation of two-phase flow and the direct generation of steam for electricity production. It consists of two rows of parabolic trough collectors of 550 m in length and 2750 m2, and 115 m in length and 1088 m2 of solar gain area, respectively.
    • The HTF test loop, formed by 3 parabolic cylinder collectors of 75 m in length and equipped with a complete oil circuit that allows the evaluation and qualification of new components under real operating conditions.
    • PROMETEO. Installation based on the IBERTROUGH prototype for the testing of new components and thermal transfer fluids for large parabolic trough collectors.
    • PTTL. Installation that allows the testing in real conditions of new complete prototypes (loops) of parabolic trough collectors up to 180 m. long.
    • NEP. Field consisting of 8 Polytrough 1200 parabolic trough collectors (1.2 m opening and 125 kWt) for polygeneration applications up to 220ºC.
    • ILF. Parabolic trough collectors system called "Test Loop for Innovative Fluids", for tests up to 400ºC and 100 bar.
    • TCP-100: field formed by 3 loops of parabolic trough collectors of 2.3 MWt with a thermocline tank for thermal storage (115 m3)
      Facilities based on Fresnel technology
    • FRESDEMO loop, consisting of 25 lines of mirrors with a total surface area of approx. 1400 m².
    Other facilities related to parabolic trough technology
    • KONTAS. Rotatory test bench for parabolic cylinder collector components up to 20 m. long.
    • REPA. System for conducting accelerated life cycle tests (rotation and expansion) of mobile elements in parabolic trough collectors.
    Thermal Storage Facilities
    • MOSA installation. Formed by a molten salt storage system (40 tons), heating and dissipation of the thermal energy of salts (290-380ºC) system, thermal oil system and interconnection systems.
    Central receiver installations (tower technology)
    • CESA-1 installation of 6 MWt, 80 m high tower and 4 trial platforms
    • Installation SSPS-CRS of 2.5 MWt, with a 43 m. high tower and 3 test platforms.
    Solar Furnaces, for processes of heat treatment of materials and heat of process at high temperature
    • SF-60, of 60 kWt and horizontal axis, associated with a 120 m2 heliostat.
    • SF-40, 40 kWt and horizontal axis, associated with a 100 m2 heliostat.
    • SF-5, 5 kWt and vertical axis, associated with a 25 m2 heliostat.
    Parabolic Discs
    • EURODISH, composed of 2 large diameter parabolic discs with an external combustion engine type 'Stirling' located in its focal area.
    • Aging Test Bed. Installation consisting of 4 parabolic units (3 DISTAL-II type with 50 kWt and 1 DISTAL-I type with 40 kWt), where the original Stirling engines have been replaced by different platforms for the performance of aging tests at high concentration of materials or prototypes of small-scale solar receivers.
    Solar Desalination
    • MED. Multi-effect plant of 14 stages (3 m3 / h of nominal production) coupled to a field of static solar collectors (606 m2), a thermal storage system in water (40 m3), a double effect heat pump (LiBr-H2O) ) and a gas boiler.
    • CSP + D. Integration of the MED plant in solar power cycles. The system has 2 steam generators (250 and 500 kW) for the simulation of different power thermodynamic cycles (up to 400ºC) using the 14-stage MED plant as the cooling element of the cycle.
    • MDTF. Test bench of different systems of distillation by membranes at pilot scale.
    Water Treatment
    • DETOX. Complex installation for solar detoxification applications, composed of a loop of parabolic trough collectors with tracking on two axes and three loops of CPC photo-reactors type, for the realization of different types of tests.
    • DISINF. Installation consisting of several pilot plants of CPC geometry and anodized aluminum and non-solar plants for experimental solar water disinfection applications, complemented by an experimental greenhouse designed as a 30 m2 cultivation chamber
    • HYWATOX. Experimental plant for the photocatalytic production of hydrogen associated with a solar CPC collector.
    • WETOX Experimental system for supercritical wet oxidation (up to 300ºC and 200 bar)
    Meteorological Facilities
    • METAS. Meteorological station integrated in the 'Baseline Surface Radiation Network' (BSRN).
    Energy Efficiency Installations
    • Energy Testing of Building Components Laboratory (LECE), consisting of a set of test cells and experimental buildings for the monitoring of innovations in the energy efficiency of buildings.