Participants:     20 Spanish Companies and 18 subcontracted Spanish Research Institutions.

Contact:          Julián Blanco, PSA-CIEMAT, julian.blanco@psa.es

Funding:          Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism (CENIT project on the INGENIO programme); 24 M€.

Duration:         January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2010

Background:   Despite the importance of R&D in cost reduction of solar thermal technologies, the number of scientists and engineers involved in the technical development is still relatively small. The International Energy Agency recommends multidisciplinary R&D teams, encompassing optics, science of materials, heat transfer, instrumentation and measuring techniques, energy engineering, and thermal storage.

Objectives:      The general goal of the project is to establish a R&D infrastructure that consolidates the leading role of Spain in concentrated solar power technologies. The specific objective of the participation of PSA-CIEMAT concerns desalination, i.e., the integration of multi-effect distillation (MED) plants in solar power cycles.

Scheme of a possible dual combined power cycle and MED desalination plant