In 2015 Aitesa had the opportunity to collaborate with Harbin in the design of the steam production train of the Delingha solar thermal power plant. The Delingha solar thermal project has 50 MW of power and the energy is transformed into high pressure steam to be converted into electrical energy thanks to the movement of a high pressure turbine and a low pressure turbine. Aitesa was the engineering contractor for the steam generation train. Specifically AITESA was responsible for the thermal and mechanical design and detailed engineering of the drawings and also finite element analysis for four shell and tube heat exchangers.

The system is designed to produce power from steam using a high pressure turbine and a low pressure turbine. The system consists of two heat exchange trains (A and B), each operating at 50% capacity. The heat required to generate and superheat the steam comes from an oil that acts as a thermal fluid. The superheated steam is first used in a high-pressure steam turbine. After passing through the high pressure turbine, the steam is directed to a separator and a superheater, where it is properly conditioned for entry into the low-pressure turbine. The water preheater and superheater are designed with the thermal oil on the shell side and the water and steam on the tube side. However, the evaporator is configured with the thermal oil on the tube side and the water and steam on the shell side. At the outlet of the evaporator, a separator is installed to condition the steam generated for the high pressure turbine. Regarding the design of the equipment itself:

Delingha is China’s first commercial-scale plant and is one of 20 CSP projects in 2018, representing a total capacity of 1.35 GW. In the same year, China connected the 50 MW Delingha CSP plant to the power grid.