Hydro Aluminum Teams with Acciona on New Spanish Solar Power Generating Plant

Hydro Aluminum?s (Linthicum, MD) Extrusion Americas unit will supply critical extruded aluminum to Acciona, SA, a Spanish energy company, for use in the world?s newest solar power plant. This facility, under construction in Badajoz, Spain near the border with Portugal, will generate 50 megawatts of electricity when completed.

Hydro Aluminum?s Extrusion Americas unit is supplying more than seven million pounds of extruded aluminum that will be used to construct framework for mounting the parabolic mirrors in the solar thermal facility. Those mirrors, which track the sun throughout the day, focus the sun?s rays on the system?s heat transfer liquid. The heated liquid generates steam, driving a turbine that creates electricity.

Hydro and Acciona previously worked together on the Nevada Solar One facility in Boulder City, Nevada. Completed in 2007, Nevada Solar One is currently generating 72 megawatts of power. It is the third largest solar power generating plant in the world.

?Because of tight manufacturing tolerances, the design and the precision of the extrusions, the frames in the Nevada plant are able to focus the mirrors quite precisely on the heat transfer tubes,? said Allan Bennett, Hydro Aluminum?s vice president of sales & marketing for the company?s Western Region ? Extrusion Americas. ?For the Spain project, we were able to apply the lessons learned in fabricating the frames for Nevada Solar One and do it more quickly and efficiently.?

Each frame is about 26 feet long and 12 feet high. There are more than 9,000 frames planned for the Spanish plant, spread over an estimated 400 acres.

Hydro is manufacturing the frame components, support beams, clips, connectors, and other parts, at its Phoenix manufacturing facility. The products are sent to Hydro?s plant in Guaymas, Mexico for fabrication and then to Spain for final assembly.

www.hydro.com/northamerica