eSolar to Provide Solar Collectors to CSP Project in Australia

eSolar®, a leading developer of modular, scalable concentrating solar power (CSP) technology, has been contracted by Aalborg CSP A/S (Aalborg, Denmark) to provide a solar collector system (SCS) product in support of a recently announced commercial expansion of Sundrop Farms’ greenhouse facility in Port Augusta, South Australia. Construction of the expansion facility begins this month and is due for completion in 2016.

“This contract award is a major milestone for our company” said John Van Scoter, President and CEO of eSolar. “It demonstrates that our product can be utilized across multiple applications and industries, and we are extremely excited to be part of this innovative project.”

Sundrop Farms, a pioneering arid climate agribusiness, grows crops in state-of-the art greenhouses using a proprietary technology developed to address the food, water, and energy security issues typical to arid regions. The approach uses solar power to create the heat, electricity, and desalinated water needed to support the growing operations. Global investment firm KKR is partnered with Sundrop Farms and is providing growth capital to the company to support its international development and to expand its current facility in South Australia. This will result in a 20-hectare greenhouse facility that will produce more than 15,000 tons of vegetables annually for markets across Australia.

Aalborg CSP, leveraging extensive experience in traditional steam boilers, develops and provides CSP boiler systems and technologies for both power plant and industrial applications. For the Port Augusta expansion project, Aalborg CSP has responsibility to develop and deliver the complete Integrated CSP Energy System enabling year-round operation of Sundrop’s greenhouse facilities. To achieve best solar field performance, eSolar has been selected as supplier of the solar collector system.

“After significant due diligence and evaluation of solar collector system providers, we determined that eSolar was the best choice for the project needs,” said Svante Bundgaard, CEO of Aalborg CSP. “eSolar has acted with high responsiveness and professionalism throughout the process and offers the optimal cost and performance solution for the project, with ease of implementation and maintenance, and lower costs for the benefit of the project and the Client.”

eSolar’s highly efficient CSP solution is designed to minimize solar field construction costs, complexities, and cycle times. The most recent generation of the SCS product (“SCS5”) leverages attributes and lessons learned from previous generations and further improves the economics and construction efficiency by maximizing use of standard high volume components, reducing the number of system elements, and embracing leading edge design-for-manufacturing techniques.

“eSolar has committed itself to developing innovative, best-value solutions that expand the market for concentrating solar thermal power, whether it’s used to create electricity or process steam,” said Van Scoter. “We believe that our most recent generation of product, our focused efforts to align with strong and credible partners, and our continual exploration and pursuit of global project opportunities have positioned us well for commercial success.”