The Crescent Dunes Energy solar thermal plant in Tonopah (Nevada, USA) selects TEDAGUA technology

Construction of the Crescent Dunes Energy project, one of the largest central-tower solar thermal power plant projects currently under construction in the world, has started in Tonopah (Nevada, USA). The plant is expected to be operative by the end of 2013 and will provide service to 75,000 homes in the city of Las Vegas. Spanish capital holds a significant stake in the project developer, the Tonopah Solar Energy Company and partners include the California company Solar Reserve, the Spanish financial institution Santander and Cobra, with a 35% holding.

This 110 MW plant has a construction budget of close to 1 billion dollars (760 million euros). It represents a milestone in industrial construction backed by the U.S. Department of Energy, which is participating in project financing through soft loans. The infrastructure includes a central tower 160 metres high (the highest in the world of its type) surrounded by 10,000 heliostats (mirror assemblies) with stored molten salts reaching temperatures ranging from 300 to 560 degrees Celsius.

TEDAGUA has been selected as the subcontractor for the design, construction, and commissioning of the water treatment plant that will supply the solar thermal plant.

The intake will run from a single deep well located next to the plant. The raw water will receive physical-chemical pre-treatment that will allow it to be used in the independent production processes for feed water to the cooling towers and as circulation water, drinking water, and demineralized water. This treatment consists of oxidation, settling and filtration. The required flow of pre-treated water is 1,050 gpm of which 45 gpm are for drinking water, 855 gpm for cooling, and 150 gpm for supplying the demineralization plant.

The water treatment process continues with the demineralization phase which provides water to supply the power block’s thermal cycle. It consists of two identical lines with a capacity of 101 gpm each with two-stage reverse osmosis and electro-deionization.

With this new contract, the first in the United States, TEDAGUA continues its expansion abroad in the industrial water treatment sector.