Reported from CSPPLAZA: Recently, the 9MWe linear Fresnel DSG thermal power station developed by SUNCIM, a subsidiary of French Industrial Group CNIM, has begun solar field commissioning and is expected to realize grid-connected power generation in the near future. The project is also the first solar thermal power station in France to be commercialized.

The 9MW project named eLLO is located in the LI area of Pyrenees, French , covering 36 hectares and collecting 23,800 collectors. The 95200 heliostats has a total aperture area of 153,000 square meters. In addition, there are 9 energy storage devices to meet the heat storage time of up to 4 hours. After the project is put into operation, it can supply power to more than 6,000 households. EDF, the French power company, has signed a power purchase agreement with SUNCIM for the project for 20 years.

The project completed financing and started construction on October 14, 2016, with 75% from European Bank and 25% from private equity. It has a total investment of 60 million euros (about 478 million yuan).

The biggest highlight of the project is that it did not use the most common molten salt working medium as the heat storage medium, but chose steam storage. As early as 2010, the company built a 500kW small Fresnel water quality demonstration project in La Seyne sur Mer, France, which is equipped with a steam generation system to test the actual operation results.

Figure: Small demonstration system built in 2010

The following set of pictures shows the construction process of the eLLO power station.

Figure: Construction site (photo taken in October 2016)

Figure: Project civil works are underway (photo taken on December 1, 2016)

Figure: Project infrastructure work completed on schedule in winter (photo taken on February 15, 2017)

Figure: The first batch of collector support structure in place (photo taken on March 25, 2017)

Figure: About half of the collector support structure is installed in place (photo taken in April 2017)

Figure: The first batch of mirror system is installed in place (photo taken at the end of July 2017)

Figure: Mirror installation halfway (photo taken at the end of January 2018)

Figure: Mirror installation is almost complete (photo taken in June 2018)

Figure: Installation of the heat storage system completed (photo taken in early October 2018)

Figure: Solar field commissioning (photo taken at the end of October 2018)

For more details on building, please click to watch the video below.