14 October 2011
BeldenAs a leader in the generation of reliable power from solar energy, Torresol Energy develops Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants. The company’ has constructed a new plant in Fuentes de Andalucía in Seville, Spain. Occupying 185 hectares, the GEMASOLAR plant is the first commercial plant in the world to apply central tower and heliostat technology, with an installation that comprises a total of 2,600 heliostats.The electricity generated by GEMASOLAR – approximately 110 GWh/year. The plant provides 25,000 households with safe, clean energy, whilst at the same time reducing co2 emissions by over 40,000 tons per.Sener, the engineering company responsible for designing and scoping the project, appointed Schneider Electric Spain to be responsible for designing, producing and implementing the plant’s Solar Field Control System (SCS) and the Distributed Control System (DCS). It was realized that the right solution could only be supplied by a manufacturer with a thorough understanding of both the application and the network structure – and the ability to offer a comprehensive package that includes all the relevant hardware, software and services.Hirschmann™ was able to offer the right solution, based on a highest redundancy concept with the HIPER-Ring Backbone. The HIPER Ring guarantees a recovery time of less than 300 milliseconds. The ring structure allows both a cost optimised implementation of a redundant network as well as maintenanceand network extension during operation. This makes the HIPER Ring especially suitable for complex applications.With a long experience in the alternative power market, Hirschmann™ was able to meet the need for robustness in switch design. All parts of the Hirschmann™ comprehensive range of industrial switches fulfil the high requirements of this challenging environment and application.The network topology is based on a redundant backbone ring with Gigabit Ethernet using MACH 4002 with routing functionality and managed compact switches for the 26 fiber optic rings. The network range included Hirschmann™ MACH 4002 and the compact RS 20 switches. For the comprehensive monitoring and visualization of the network the Hirschmann™management software Industrial HiVision have been used.There were a number of key reasons why the Hirschmann™ solution was found to be the best: Not only were Hirschmann™ able to supply the right industrial switches for the application, they are sufficiently robust to be able to withstand the wide temperature range to which they are submitted in the course of a single day.Key user benefits at-a-glance: Highest possible reliability, with no single point of failure Maximum productivity and highest availability 24 hours per day Meeting all safety and security requirements Cost-efficiency Operator access at all times to the solar thermal park network Optimized performance of the power generation plant Intensive technical support during the complete planning and project phase as well as during the operation of the plant Improved know-how through technology and product training by Hirschmann™ for both networking hardware and software Highest flexibility with the option to expand the network in the future Transparency and network monitoringFor more information about Belden, please visit www.beldensolutions.com or e-mail mailto://inet-sales@belden.com for product inquiries.
Print this page | E-mail this page
This isn't a paywall. It's a Freewall. We don't want to get in the way of what you came here for, so this will only take a few seconds.
Register Now