John Cockerill puts its first ‘H24’ solar power plant into operation
September 29th 2019
The start of operations of the first molten salts solar power plant from John Cockerill took place successfully on September 21st at Haixi (China). Within this project, John Cockerill supplied the molten salts thermo-solar receiver located at the top of the tower. Thanks to this new technology entirely developed by the John Cockerill teams, this power plant is capable of producing solar power electricity 24 hours a day. Outside of thermo-solar, the portfolio of John Cockerill products and services in the domain of renewable energies also extends to green hydrogen, battery storage, wind power, biomass and hydro-electricity.
The Haixi thermo-solar power plant (located between the Gobi desert and the Tibet plateau) has a capacity of 50 mWe, or enough to supply the equivalent of 50,000 households with electricity. Its development required two years of work at John Cockerill. A specific feature is its ability to produce electricity by night as well as by day, thanks to the use of molten salts as a heat transfer fluid. These salts are delivered to the receiver at the top of the tower, heated to more than 600°C and, once they are brought down again, they retain their heat for 17 hours, which enables the production of steam and then of electricity, at night as well as during the day.
