Solar Plants
CADE develops highly specialised technologies and engineering solutions aimed at maximising the performance, reliability and value of photovoltaic and solar thermal plants throughout their life cycle.
Engineering and technical analysis for photovoltaic and solar thermal plants in design, construction and operation.
Owners who need an independent design review, funds that must limit the risk of an investment, insurers and loss adjusters who need to determine the cause of a claim, manufacturers validating new designs, and EPC contractors optimising material and demonstrating the behaviour of their solution.
ManufacturersOwnersDevelopersEPC contractorsFundsInsurers
Photovoltaic Plants
CADE applies advanced analysis, simulation and monitoring techniques to anticipate structural risks, prevent failures and maximise the reliability and performance of photovoltaic plants.
- Validation of trackers and fixed structures
- Wind loads and aeroelasticity (CFD)
- Foundations and soil-structure interaction
- Structural monitoring
- Root cause analysis
- Revamping and repowering
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Solar Thermal Plants (CSP)
CADE offers highly specialised technology solutions for the critical challenges of systems and processes in concentrated solar power plants (CSP), aimed at ensuring their availability, integrity and performance.
- Solar field and HTF
- Molten salt storage
- Steam generation
- Power block
- Integrity and remaining life assessment (RLA)
- Root cause analysis
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From design to revamping
CADE is involved in every phase of solar plants. The experience gained in audits and failure analysis of operating plants feeds into the engineering of new projects.
Design
Owner’s engineering, technical and economic feasibility studies (CAPEX-OPEX), FEED, permitting up to ready-to-build, and basic and detail engineering of the solar field, HTF, storage and power block.
Construction
Procurement and technical specifications, fabrication control and shop inspection, supervision of civil, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation works, and commissioning and testing protocols.
Operation
Technical audits of critical equipment, performance ratio (PR) and grid code compliance audits, technical due diligence, and digital twins for predictive maintenance.
Diagnosis
Root cause analysis (RCA), remaining life assessment (RLA), by-pass design and availability improvements, structural revamping and expert witness support.
Own technology for solar plants
Tools and technologies developed by CADE from its experience in photovoltaic and solar thermal plants.
Digital twins
Monitoring of critical assets, predictive maintenance and integrity and life assessment. They include intelligent 3D models built from laser scanning.
Numerical wind tunnel (CFD)
Aerodynamic coefficients and aeroelastic phenomena of trackers. It complements the interpretation of the manufacturer’s wind tunnel tests.
solidTES
Thermal storage in concrete and aggregates, which can be integrated with steam, hot water, thermal oil, air or electricity processes.
ProcessCSP
Industrial heat from parabolic trough or Fresnel concentration, with molten salt storage.
InCycle
Optimisation of the water-steam cycle, covering water chemistry, equipment condition (corrosion, FAC, fouling, fatigue) and cycle performance.
More than 150 photovoltaic projects in 12 countries
10.3 GW of capacity in Spain, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Peru and Puerto Rico. Around 15% of these projects include failure analysis.
Technical articles
- Photovoltaic, Solar Plants
- Engineering & Consulting, Integrity & Performance
- Engineering & Consulting, Integrity & Performance, Simulation
- Engineering, Engineering & Consulting