DEWA Solar Power Tower

The DEWA Concentrated Solar Power Tower is a part of the largest solar park on earth located 50 km from Dubai and the tower will also be the highest CSP facility in the world. The capacity of the CSP Tower is 100 MW. The solar park will decrease carbon emissions by about 1.6 million t per year.

The CSP Tower consists of two main units. A 222 m high concrete part is a support for a 38 m high Molten Salt Receiver (MSR). Our company has been charged with the design of the Molten Salt Receiver - 900 t of steel. It was necessary to model the whole tower, in order to take into account all the loads, seismicity and aerodynamic instabilities. Supports were modelled as spring constants with stiffness corresponding to concrete piles calculations. IBC standards were used for combinations and structural checks.

During the design process, SCIA Engineer’s results were confronted with results from Spanish company EA, who focused on the detailed design of the concrete part. Substitute static load simulating the vortex phenomenon was compared with wind tunnel measurements made by the Zhejiang University to confirm the safety of the structure. Since the MSR will be erected on the ground and after that lifted through the concrete tower to its top, a parallel MSR model with non-linear supports was created and its results were discussed with an Italian lifting company Fagioli.

"The project shows a high level of technicality in different disciplines. Especially the collaboration with different parties made this project stand out (i.e. lifting, interaction with the concrete structure, wind loading, seismicity…)."

Quote of the Jury

This project is the winner of the SCIA User Contest 2020 – Prize of the Jury.

Read the whole story in our SCIA User Contest 2020 book