A 500 m² spot-focusing solar concentrator has been already developed in previous projects and built as prototype. This dish including the drive system was now been optimized to reduce mass and cost. The concentrator is designed as a trussed structure with 220 mirror facets made of curved glass. It is mounted on a turntable and tracks the sun along two axes hydraulically. The sunlight is concentrated onto a heat exchanger (receiver) generating hot air up to 1,000 °C. Eight identical systems were built whose energy is collected and converted to hot steam via an air-steam-heat exchanger. After further expansion of the plant the steam shall be fed into the steam process of a conventional coal-fired power plant.
