The Cordoba-based engineering company Magtel has started the environmental consultation phase of the first hybrid renewable power plant to be proposed in the province of Cordoba. It will have (if it gets the papers) the two available solar technologies, solar thermal and photovoltaic, but it will have a peculiarity. You can create electrical energy at will. When the energy network demands it. Even at night, when there is no sunlight, or in cloudy periods.

Hybrid plants are part of the new technologies in the matter. They consist of using two systems in one so that there is always the possibility of creating electricity. Well with water and biomass, wind and sun or any of the options allowed by the environment for which they are designed. This plant is planned for the municipality of Hornachuelos in a place called El Carrascal.

In this case, Magtel has opted for solar thermal and photovoltaic, which tend to be confused, although they are by no means the same. The first technology is thermal, it works with heat. The panels capture it and heat a fluid close to 400 degrees, which is what is used to create electricity in the corresponding turbine. Photovoltaics use a chemical procedure. Solar radiation comes into contact with materials that produce electricity and conduct it to the network. That is why it is the most used in the domestic sphere.

The difference of this plant is that it will allow its operator to produce electricity when the network demands it, even at night. The great challenge of renewables today is to offer a constant supply. Biomass can continue to burn, the wind continues to blow but there is a problem with the sun. Magtel works on return hydroelectric plants that precisely allow the outflow of water to be controlled by generating a kind of closed circuit. A tap that opens and closes without losing water resources.

In the case of the solar thermal plant, the company's engineers have opted for molten salt technology. It is a fluid that heats up when the sun's heat reaches the panels. When the transfer of that fluid from a hot tank to a cold one occurs, it is when the energy production process begins.

Magtel's plan is to create a large hybrid power plant. The plot that has been identified as necessary is about 250 football fields. The solar thermal part would produce about 100 MW, one of the most important in the area, and the fovotoltaic part (fundamentally to support solar thermal production), 10 MW.

The reasons for choosing Horchachuelos after studying several locations has to do with the nearby presence of the Villanueva del Rey substation, which is located on a high-voltage line where there are expansion plans. The documents of the Andalusian Energy Agency assure that this axis, which connects the Sevillian countryside with Castilla La Mancha, is key for the future energy development of renewables. Magtel explains in its report that it intends to initiate environmental consultations with the aim of being prepared for eventual contests to transfer to the network that there will be in the future. The company did not want to facilitate the planned investment as it was a project in the initial phase.

From：Magtellanza una central solar híbrida que producirá energía de noche en Hornachuelos