TABJ - June 30 - The Spanish headquartered SENER group, and partner Torresol Energy—the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) pioneer which is a joint venture between SENER and Abu Dhabi’s future energy company, Masdar—have reaped a flurry of awards at the 2011 US CSP Today awards.

The ceremony, held in Las Vegas, Monda, saw the pair walk away with both ‘Engineering Firm of the year’ and ‘Commercialized Technology Innovation of the year’ thanks to their 19.9 megawatt project in Seville, Spain: Gemasolar, the first commercial Concentrated Solar Power plant in the world to use central tower technology with a molten salt receiver and thermal storage system.

These prestigious awards were picked up by Mercedes Sierra, SENER’s CEO in San Francisco, who said that they symbolise, “the effort carried out by SENER in these last years to offer the best technological solutions in every area where it develops its activity,” and Felicia Bellows, Torresol Energy’s Vice-president of Development also from San Francisco’s office, who mirrored Sierra’s words in talking about the challenges the pair faced in the development of Gemasolar.