Solar Trust of America Receives Industry Innovation Award for New Parabolic Trough Collector
Sister Company’s HelioTrough Collector Cited for Performance, Efficiency Boosts by CSP Today at 4th Annual Concentrated Solar Power Summit USA
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Solar Trust of America, LLC, an integrated industrial solar solutions company, today announced that the new HelioTrough parabolic trough collector developed by its sister company, Flagsol GmbH, received the CSP Innovation Award at the just concluded 4th Annual Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Summit in San Francisco.
“HelioTrough represents the future for parabolic through technology and we expect it to be the cornerstone of our proposed solar thermal power plants in the southwestern United States”
.The next-generation collector was recognized by conference attendees who voted for the award for its innovative design, increased thermal output efficiency and reduced component costs.
The HelioTrough collector is one third larger than its predecessor, Skal-Et, and requires fewer collectors to produce the same amount of energy. Combined with an optimized structure geometry the HelioTrough reduces the investments cost by nearly 20 percent in comparison to current collector designs. In addition, the efficiency level of the parabolic trough mirrors was increased by nearly 10 percent.
Uwe T. Schmidt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Solar Trust of America, said the industry recognition for HelioTrough validates the combined efforts of joint venture partners Solar Millennium Group and Ferrostaal Group to develop the next generation of highly efficient and reliable parabolic trough solar thermal power plants.
“HelioTrough represents the future for parabolic through technology and we expect it to be the cornerstone of our proposed solar thermal power plants in the southwestern United States,” said Schmidt. “Thanks to the exceptional development and testing work by our colleagues at Flagsol, we are one step closer to providing performance and cost efficiencies not seen on the commercial market today.”
Dr. Wolfgang Knothe, Chief Executive Officer of Flagsol GmbH, said, "Although final statements on the collectors' efficiency will be made at the end of the year once performance measurements are completed, the HelioTrough met all our expectations during the first months of testing. With HelioTrough we will have the most efficient collector on the market and will further expand our technology leadership while reaching our goal of achieving competitiveness with fossil-fuel power plants.”
The HelioTrough collector was developed along with partners by Flagsol GmbH Cologne, a technology subsidiary of Solar Millennium and Ferrostaal. Prior to installing an 800-foot demonstration loop at a solar thermal power plant in the U.S., the new collector was first tested in a factory hall in Germany to test the innovative assembly concept and verify the geometric precision. The early phases of the research and development project were promoted by the German Federal Environment Ministry, whereas the demonstration project in California is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.
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