Steam is blowing at Kathu Solar Park in South Africa

First steam generation: on Saturday, September 28th, steam blow began at Kathu Solar Park. Steam blowing represents a significant achievement for the entire commissioning process as it marks the first steam generation utilizing solar energy while confirming the safe operability of the plant key subsystems.

Kathu Solar Park is a 100 MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project with parabolic trough technology being developed by ENGIE in South Africa’s sun trenched Northern Cape. It is one of a handful of large scale CSP projects world-wide with thermal storage. Thanks to its molten salt storage system the plant can deliver 4.5 hours of full power to the grid even without sunlight.

Lahmeyer International and Tractebel Engineering combined their efforts to support ENGIE as Owner´s Engineers.