By Isabella Kaminski

Agua Prieta II, a plant in the Mexican state of Sonora, is being promoted by the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) of the United Nations’ Development Program. It is expected to come into operation within the next two years.

Abengoa will carry out the engineering, design and start-up of the innovative solar-gas hybrid technology in the new Agua Prieta II concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, which includes a 12 MW solar field of parabolic trough collectors.

The second phase of the project will be completed with a combined cycle plant capable of producing up to 464.4 MW of power, which will comprise two gas turbines, one steam turbine, a heat exchanger, cooling, condensing and power systems, and auxiliary equipment and systems. The Agua Prieta II CSP plant will be the first hybrid solar-gas plant in Mexico.

Abengoa has already completed two hybrid solar-gas plants in other countries; those in Morocco (470 MW) and Algeria (150 MW), are already up and running, and are the first and largest plants to use Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) technology.