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.
CADE has a solid track record of delivering high-value engineering and technical analysis to owners and developers of photovoltaic and solar thermal plants throughout their life cycle, as owner's engineer, technical consultant and independent expert.
Owners and developers who need an independent design review, funds that want to limit the risk of their investment, insurers that require rigorous technical analysis when something fails, and manufacturers and EPC contractors that validate and optimise their solutions.
From design to revamping
What we learn auditing plants in operation and analysing their failures goes into the engineering of new projects.
Design
Owner’s engineering, techno-economic feasibility studies (CAPEX-OPEX), FEED, permitting up to ready-to-build, and basic and detailed 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 (PR) and grid code compliance audits, technical due diligence, and digital twins for predictive maintenance.
Diagnosis
Root cause analysis (RCA), remaining life assessment (RLA), bypass design and availability improvements, structural revamping and expert witness support.
Photovoltaic Plants
Analysis, simulation and monitoring 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)
We solve critical system and process problems in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants to ensure 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
- …
Own technology for solar plants
Proprietary tools and technologies, born from our 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.
Case studies
Technical articles
- Photovoltaic, Solar Plants
- Engineering & Consulting, Integrity & Performance
- Engineering & Consulting, Integrity & Performance, Simulation