Technology

The HiPRWind R&D project (involving nineteen companies from eight countries) involves the design and installation of a floating wind platform, which will be anchored to the seabed and will support a 1.5-MW Acciona wind turbine. The Spanish company, which is directly responsible for designing the floating platform, forecasts that the platform and wind turbine will be installed in the second half of 2013.

Isofotón has signed an agreement with the Korean company Posco Engineering Plant to develop a series of photovoltaic projects. This partnership continues the Malaga-based company's international partnership strategy. Korea is the latest in a series of agreements signed with a Chinese oil company and Mercedes.

Ence and the University of Huelva, on the one hand, and the Forest Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) and the Catalan Federation of Forestry Owner Associations (Boscat), on the other, have laid the foundations to promote and develop forest bioenergy.

Renovalia Energy has launched its third-generation concentrating solar power technology worldwide and has announced the commissioning of 71 MW in Spain, with an investment of €300 million and creating over 1,200 jobs. Casas de los Pinos, Cuenca, will host the first MW.

Only superseded by Germany, China, Denmark and the United States. Yes, we are the world's fifth largest exporter of wind technology, according to data released recently by the UN, which indicate that our country exported towers, blades and wind turbines totalling €1.836 billion in 2010. In fact, the sector increased its exports eight-fold between 2000 and 2010, according to the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE).

Valencia’s Director General of Energy, Antonio Cejalvo, recently visited the solar plant installed by the company RNB Cosméticos at its base in Pobla de Vallbona. It is the first plant in Spain to provide solar cooling through an industrial process.

Fotoplat is the acronym of the Spanish Photovoltaic Technology Platform, the steering committee of which met on 20 March at the offices of the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Mineco). The aim of the platform is to foster the development of photovoltaic technologies.

The Wind Tower (or Torre Eólica as it is known in Spanish) is a building designed to accommodate up to 400 vertical-axis wind turbines and geothermal and solar (thermal and photovoltaic) systems. The skyscraper has been jointly designed by the Technical University of Valencia (UPV), the Energy Technology Institute (under the auspices of the Valencia Regional Government) and the Fran Silvestre firm of architects.

The component represents a part of the Zèfir Med Floating Wind Plant, the second phase of the Zèfir offshore wind project that aims to roll out five different types of wind turbine technology on floating substructures thirty kilometres off the coast of Tarragona, in waters 110-metres deep.

Nobody wants to venture when microalgae will become viable at an industrial scale, especially for producing biofuels, because they are considered to be among the "third generation" feed stocks and there is still much room for improvement. However, R&D in this field is advancing, while a wide variety of algae can also be used for other compatible applications (nutrition, cosmetics, CO2 absorption, etc.) These were the findings of a technical seminar entitled Algae: uses and applications, held at the Madrid headquarters of the Spanish Federation of Journalist Associations (FAPE) in March.