ACS Cobra - Group Profile

24 ENERGY � ACS-Cobra

ACS CobrAwww.grupocobra.com


ACS-CobrA 002Energy Innovations on a Global Scale

ENERGY � ACS-Cobra 3JANUARY 2010 � The International Resource Journal

Energy Innovations on a Global Scale

5JANUARY 2010 � The International Resource Journal

The thermal solar industry may have been gathering weight and recognition as of late, but now a new breakthrough from Cobra, a Madrid-based arm of the ACS Group, the international expert engineering, operations, installation and maintenance services company, is set to pave the way for realizing the operational potential of this renewable energy resource.


ACS-CobrA hAS AChieved dispatchable solar ther-

mal power through its heat storage facilities be-

ginning with its landmark power plant, Andasol 1,

near Guadix in Granada, Spain. Andasol signals a

new chapter for solar thermal and our worldwide

ability to store renewable power and, consequent-

ly, achieve a virtually zero carbon electricity supply.

Jose Alfonso Nebrera, Director General of ACS-

Cobra, spoke to IRJ about what Andasol means for

solar thermal, for the 2020 renewable energy tar-

gets, for the cooperation of the international power

market and the other ground-breaking projects in

development at ACS-Cobra.

Developing ACS-Cobra and ESTELA.Nebrera has been working in the energy business

since completing his studies in engineering in

1974. During this time, he has seen the evolu-

ENERGY � ACS-Cobra

Imasa Ingeniería y Proyectos, S.A.Palacio Valdés, 133002 – Oviedo (Asturias – Spain)tel: +34 985 51 18 83 www.imasa.com

Among the activities developed by IMASA for ACS – COBRA Group, we can highlight the following:

“IMASA has departments specialised in the supply and erection of thermaland acoustic insulation and refractories”.

Engineering Execution of turn key projects Manufacturing of capital goods and erection and maintenance of industrial facilities


tion of ACS-Cobra from an excellent, but relatively

small, local contractor, to a world leader in energy

related construction and services. In the last few

years, he devoted a large portion of his time to

the C.S.P. industry, as co-founder of Protermoso-

lar; the Spanish Concentrated Solar Power Indus-

try Association, and ESTELA, or, the European

Solar Thermal Electricity Association (of which he

is president today).

“I started in the construction of nuclear

power plants for a large portion of my career,

and I started working for Cobra back in 1988.

I’ve been in the company for more than 21

years now. Cobra became part of the ACS Group

around 1992, and from that moment on, I’ve

been involved in the ACS energy business,”

he recalls.

“We first started here in Spain by promoting

the Andasol plants which we took over from So-

lar Millennium in around 2003. They were trying

to develop the projects, but they didn’t have the

financial capacity or technical credibility with

the Spanish authorities to create the proper

legal framework.”



ACS-Cobra made an agreement with Solar

Millennium and subsequently, through the then

just born Protermosolar, created by ACS, SENER

[SENER Ingeniería y Sistemas S.A] and Abengoa

Solar, agreed with the Spanish ministry on the

legal framework to make the promotion of Anda-

sol and other plants possible with the necessary

level of feed-in tariff.

“By 2007, and following a suggestion from

Schott Solar, we decided that it was a good time

to start a new European association for the im-

merging solar thermal industry, which we called

ESTELA, and I became the president at that

time,” Nebrera says.

“ESTELA is now one of the main parties to

discuss solar thermal related issues with the

European Union institutions. We have a lot of in-

terchange with the European Commission. That

means that the president has to spend a lot of

his time with ESTELA activities, which means

that probably 30 per cent of my time is spent

with ESTELA.”

Today, ESTELA takes part in the discussion,

development and promotion of a multitude of solar

thermal issues, both within Europe and worldwide,

including the leadership of the Solar Industry

Initiative of the E.U. Strategic Energy Plan, multiple

contributions to the Mediterranean Solar Plan or

the development of a C.S.P. Cost Roadmap.



“The activity and role of ESTELA is more

intense than ever before, and it will grow as

energy becomes more and more of a priority for

the E.U. political, social and economy scenario,”

Nebrera says.

ACS-Cobra’s renewable energy projectsNebrera says that for the most part, ACS-Cobra’s

energy projects are executed within the compa-

ny’s industrial branch, ACS S.C.E.

“A large portion of our €7.5 billion per year

revenue is in the world of energy—electricity,

gas, virtually any aspect of the energy business.

A large and growing portion of that is our work

within renewables. From a renewables point of

view, we are very much involved in wind farms

and C.S.P. We have something like 1.3 gigabytes

of wind farms in operation, mainly in Spain,

and we’re promoting projects in other countries

around the world,” he explains.

“We’re presently one of the main owners

[companies] of thermal solar. We have 150 MW

of thermal solar plants operating, the two Anda-

sol and one Extresol plant. In fact, we’re the only

company with dispatchable thermal solar plants

operating, and I guess we’ll be this way for the next

year or so.”

Nebrera says that there are plants being

built in Spain which come complete with stor-

age, however those will not be finished until

around the end of 2010. Meanwhile, ACS-Cobra

continues to build and improve on its own solar

thermal plant projects.

“We are building another four plants of the

same kind and with the same characteristics, with

incremental improvements in technology and cost

reduction, with a total investment in the seven

plants of more than €2 billion,” Nebrera says.

“Simultaneously, we’re working on the design

of the next generation of plants that will contain

different features from the ones we’re building

now. We’re not linked to any particular technolo-

gies. For example, we’re working in one tower pow-

er plant in association with SENER, which is being

built in the Seville province for Torresol, a company

owned by SENER and MASDAR from Abu Dhabi.

It’s a 17 MW power plant and it’s a very interest-

ing technology as well, with higher tempearatures



and 15 hours storage. We’re also working for other

clients in power generation construction in many

different technologies,” he continues.

ACS-Cobra has been working on the Castor

offshore Underground Gas-Storage (U.G.S.) project,

located off Spain’s east coast, for the past three

years. In May, 2009, the company was able to

launch the construction, and the storage will be-

come operational in 2012, with a total investment

of over €1.5 billion.

“Getting all of the necessary permits for the

project took a long time, as permitting is some-

times even longer than the construction of the

project itself. Now we have almost all of the per-

mits we need, however, there are still some that

we expect to gain by March 2010, and for the time

being we are progressing with the fabrication of

the jackets and the platforms,” he says.

“We have already sub-contracted the pipe con-

nection from the platforms to the onshore facility,

and we have also gained the contract for that on-

shore facility. Basically, we have contracted or sub-

contracted around 85 to 90 per cent of the job.”

Nebrera adds that despite the delicate finan-

cial aftermath of the global financial crisis, the

project financing for the Castor U.G.S. project will

be a success and will set an important milestone

in the industry.

“Putting together the banks and work on all of

the details in the financial contracts is taking quite



some time, but we expect to sign everything by the

first quarter of 2010,” Nebrera says.

Meanwhile in Mexico, ACS-Cobra is working on

a unique project which Nebrera says, from a com-

pany perspective, is very important in terms of the

size and technology involved.

“It’s a project on the development of natural

gas fields for PEMEX in Mexico. We’re developing

three large gas fields so far, where we are doing

all of the drilling, wells construction and the as-

sociated infrastructure for the piping and facili-

ties and everything to deliver the clean gas to

PEMEX,” he reveals.

“This is a project of around $2 billion which

will be developed over the next fifteen years. It’s

a new approach to contracting using very intel-

ligent rules which were created by PEMEX for this

specific kind of job. This allows the company to

profit from a large project which is financed by the

contractors, so we are financing all of the activity

based on the actual value of the gas—which we

deliver to PEMEX.”

The Andasol breakthroughOf course, all of these latest projects come

after Andasol. Nebrera says that when ACS-


Cobra took the project over, Solar Millennium

remained involved with a 25 per cent owner-

ship share.

“We contracted as E.P.C. contractor a joint

venture of Cobra [80 per cent] and SENER [20

per cent], and the E.P.C contractor sub-contracted

to Flagsol, a sub company of Solar Millennium,

the engineering of the solar field and the H.T.F.

(Heat Transfer Fluid),” he says.

“A few months ago, we bought the remaining

25 per cent that was left under the ownership of

Solar Millennium, so presently 100 per cent of

the two plants are owned by Cobra.”

Andasol has been in operation for one year

now, and Nebrera stresses that this breakthrough

power plant ought to be understood worldwide

for what it proves: the successful storage of solar

thermal energy.

“The heat storage is a novelty, something

entirely new in the thermal solar industry, and is

working very well. This is very important for the

future of how much thermal solar we can ac-

commodate in our electricity systems, because

it is already happening that solar thermal plants

are dispatchable. I think this is essential for the

future—not only for thermal solar as a technology

SENERTROUGH patented by SENER

The goal is to use our human and engineeringcapacities to offer competitive structuralsystems and solar field assembly for anyconcentrating solar power technologies

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OUR LARGE EXPERIENCE INTHE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRYMAKES US DIFFERENT


but also for all of us in terms of the possibility of

having, in the medium-term, a very low carbon

electricity supply,” he says.

“I think that a number of very influential peo-

ple are not fully aware that this is happening. It is

important that everybody knows that heat storage

in solar thermal plants is a reality, it is working very

well and is a technology that is proven. It has to be

improved but it is already working very well.”

Nebrera says that the limitations of renew-

ables, such as the lack of predictability with

wind and running water plants, beg the ques-

tion, “how much renewable-based energy can

be actually accommodated by the electricity

systems?”

“We are already proving through the opera-

tion of Andasol one and two, and now Extresol

one, the answer is that thermo solar electricity

can cover a lot of the future electricity needs of

countries or territories which already have a size-

able good resource, in terms of radiation, or are

close to deserts where the amount of radiation is

very high. That is Europe’s case,” he explains.

Actualizing energy potential: solar thermal and beyondConsider hydro and biomass energies. They can

be harnessed, stored, and dispatched when

needed. The electricity from large hydro dams is

fully dispatchable, and biomass can be burned

as demand dictates. But Nebrera explains that

the only other renewable resource which can be

dispatched is solar, with a worldwide potential

which is several orders of magnitude above hydro

and biomass.

“To have a lot of dispatchable solar within

a relatively isolated system such as the Iberian

Peninsula system, as Spain and Portugal are quite

well integrated, would be beneficial in terms of the

system security and stability, and it can help to ac-


commodate additional amounts of non-dispatch-

able sources, such as wind or P.V.,” he says.

“In time, the interconnection of the European

Baltic and Mediterranean countries (in a kind of

super grid) should be designed not to serve the

needs of a specific country or region, as the pres-

ent national or regional grids do, but to transport

large amounts of electricity from one corner of this

vast territory to the other, with acceptable losses.”

Nebrera says that the creation of this much-

discussed super grid would be of huge benefit to

both the electricity market and the E.U. pursuit of

the 2020 renewable energy goals. It appears that

including and beyond harnessing solar thermal,

cooperation is key to achieving E.U. renewable

targets at a reasonable cost.

“If you have to install a storage or back-up ca-

pacity, for example in Spain, to accommodate the

40,000 MW of wind that some people are project-

ing for 2020 or 2025, it is going to cost a fortune.

If we were very well connected with the rest of

Europe we would not need to cover the same back-

up or storage considerations,” Nebrera says.

“The more wind energy is integrated into the

grid, the more important is to share wind and all

other resources such as solar and hydro amongst

MONESA I&C

MONESA MONESAINGENIERÍA y CONSTRUCCIÓN

Our a Company is specialized in design, construction, fabrication and erection of big storage tanks and that has developed his own special erection systems.

The main fi elds in which we are working are:

• Petrochemical – Classical tanks fi xed and fl oating roof till a capacity of 150.000 CM.

• GNL Plants - Monesa has realized 8 GNL 150.000 CM tanks and is erecting two more.

• Thermosolar Plants – Salt tanks (working temperature 400º C).

We are suppliers of ACS-COBRA Group and we have participated with them in the GNL Plant of Sagunto (4 tanks) and Thermosolar Plants (Andasol 2 Groups and Extresol 2 Groups).

Ercilla 15, Bilbao 48009 - SPAIN. Phone: 00 34 94 4240500. Fax: 00 34 94 4231721. E.Mail: [email protected]

mone_anuncio.indd 3 13/12/09 19:21:59


European and neighbouring countries—very impor-

tant in terms of reducing cost and improving our

chances for getting to a low carbon economy in a

relatively short time.”

Speaking of costing a fortune, cost must be

considered a pivotal issue when looking at both

solar thermal energy potential in 2010 and look-

ing ahead to 2020 goals. “Looking at how com-

ponents and materials costs are evolving, we are

more optimistic in terms of the future cost de-

crease of the C.S.P. electricity, but we will have a

much more educated approach when we complete

the ESTELA´s cost roadmap in a few weeks.”

In light of the global financial crisis, Nebrera

highlights regulation to be a driving force in moving

on from the last two difficult years.

“From the financing point of view, our percep-

tion is that things have improved within the last

four or five months, and will improve more in the

next five or six months. By the end of 2010, we

should be in more or less a business as usual situ-

ation regarding the financial markets. That would

be very good from the viewpoint of our activities

and all of our colleague’s activities,” he says.

“But of course, this industry is going to need

some help for a number of years ahead, and

AGALSA & ENERGÍA GIJÓN are two of the member companies of GRUPO AGALSA.

Asturiana Galvanizadora (AGALSA) is one of the biggest hot dip galvanizing companies of Europe witha galvanizing furnace of 15500 x 2300 x 3700mm.

Energía Gijón is an engineering company focusedinto the manufacture of high precision metal galvanized structures for solar fields with the most modern technol-ogy equipment (cutting laser, welding robots)


there is a lot of new regulation to be done be-

tween now and the end of 2010. Did you know

that there is a deadline of December 25, Christ-

mas Day, of 2010 which is the last day of the

transposition of the R.E.S. [Renewable Energy

Sources] Directive? There are crucial events in

Europe and worldwide which we are expecting

for 2010—a very interesting year in the after-

math of the Copenhagen meeting. If we, as Euro-

peans, are successful in promoting the changes

which are already there in the Directive, and

are to be implemented and made operational, I

think that a new era for European electricity will

appear very clearly—resulting in a lot of business

for companies like us, not only in generation but

also in transmission.”

Just as the super grid offers cooperative de-

velopment between the European Union (E.U.)

member countries- as well as neighbouring coun-

tries- towards achieving our 2020 targets, Nebrera

says that being based from Spain, a country rich in

natural renewable energy potential, could well play

in ACS-Cobra’s favour.

“We are convinced that in Spain, we’re lucky to

have a lot renewable resources, not only sun, but

wind also. We may have the possibility of cooperat-

ing with other European countries in achieving the

targets for 2020,” he says.

“Furthermore, our connection with Morocco


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will be crucial in the initial stages of the Mediterra-

nean Solar Plan development (M.S.P.).”

He adds that the goals put forward by the Re-

newable Energy Directive are yet to be developed,

but this could well be done through transposing

them from the Directive through to the national

legislations of E.U. members.

“Once those mechanisms are transposed,

the market will appear for plants to be built, for

instance, in Spain, Greece, and Portugal, with an

aim to export part of the green rights associated

with the generation of electricity to countries like

Belgium or Luxembourg—countries which are prob-

ably short of internal resources to achieve their

targets,” he says.

“In our opinion, that could create a market for

renewable energy plants to be built wherever

there are lots of natural resources, then the

feed-in tariff and difference in cost would be

taken by the countries that don’t have the natu-

ral resources to achieve their goals, possibly

through some sort of Green Electricity Certifi-

cates European market.”

So where can solar fit into this grand plan of

a brand new united electricity market? That is

where the potential for developing the Mediter-

ranean solar plant steps in.

“The M.S.P. is an initiative of the Union for the

Mediterranean (U.f.M.) countries and presently the


European Commission, and everybody is working

to make this plan possible. I think that there is a

lot of political momentum around the convenience

of going ahead with the Mediterranean Solar

Plan,” Nebrera says.

“We expect to have something operational by

the end of 2010 possibly and, through ESTELA

and Protermosolar, we are working closely with the

Spanish presidency of the European Union, the

European Commission and some of the Union for

the Mediterranean partners countries to acceler-

ate as much as possible, the deployment of those

mechanisms that are envisaged in the directive to

make the pioneering projects happen within the

next one to two years. I think that’s a major aspect

of the cooperation between Europe and the neigh-

bouring countries for the next decade, and we are

looking forward to the appointment of the U.f.M.

Secretariat to offer our ideas and help to

this endeavour.”

ACS-Cobra, solar thermal and beyondWhen you consider the potential for far-reaching

change and development offered by the Andasol

one and two and Extresol solar thermal plants

today, it seems strange that still some influential

people remain unaware of how significant this

achievement is both for ACS-Cobra and for our

renewable futures.

“It’s here and it’s working. We have to improve

the performance and reduce the cost of the elec-

tricity produced and those are the challenges for

the future,” Nebrera says.

“Dispatchability is something that is already

proven and this is very essential for the future, not

only for this technology, but for renewable energy

and electricity.”

Through their pioneering technology, expertise

and sheer commitment to renewable innovation

which can benefit everyone worldwide, ACS-Cobra

is literally lighting our futures with its solar thermal

projects.

www.grupoCobrA.Com


AS SeeN iN The JANuArY 2010 iSSue oF The iNTerNATioNAL reSourCe JourNAL

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ACS Cobra - Group Profile