Our company, Si14 Solar, jointly established with Akor Direkt GmbH in 2003 in Germany, Nuremberg, operates in the field of high-tech equipment for energy, mechanical engineering, and metalworking within the European technical university. It consists of specialists in the field of energy and electromechanical engineering. From 2003 to the present day, our enterprise has implemented energy and electrical equipment across numerous industrial sites in various countries, amounting to hundreds of millions of euros. We have established three training centers in collaboration with the university and secondary educational institutions, investing around 1.5 million euros. We have also trained instructors for these training centers.
The management of the enterprise is led by three executives and eight technical specialists based in Germany. Additionally, 44 technical specialists in Germany are consistently involved in the implementation process of energy systems. These projects involve a significant number of specialists from partner companies with which we have signed various collaborative agreements.
In recent years, starting from 2010, our company has been heavily engaged in the design, testing, and creation of generating devices operating on renewable energy sources, primarily solar energy. Despite our interest in generating installations using all forms of renewable energy – water, wind, solar, and geothermal energy – we have primarily focused on wind and solar energy. In solar energy, we work with devices based on Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology. Our primary research and device development in this direction are conducted in collaboration with the European technical university, particularly with departments in energy and industrial electronics. We have established the Alternative Energy Academy in partnership with the university, which coordinates all scientific and practical work in the field of solar energy. We selected CSP energy generation technology due to its high potential.
CSP installations exhibit the highest electrical efficiency among all known technologies, at around 30%. Additionally, these installations can provide thermal energy of up to 20%, resulting in a combined efficiency of about 50% for both thermal and electrical energy. This makes them leaders among solar energy devices. Leveraging these properties, our enterprise introduces CSP installations that not only generate electricity but also incorporate water purification and desalination units that utilize thermal energy. By combining these installations with CSP generators, the cost of producing clean drinking water can be as low as 2-4 cents per 1000 liters. For instance, with a projected total capacity of 5 MW of electrical energy in San Vicente, it's possible to produce approximately 15,000 to 20,000 liters of drinking water per day at a cost of 5 cents per 1000 liters. This could enable irrigation for almost the entire agricultural area around Salamanca on San Vicente Island.
The competence of our main specialists is sufficient not only for creating solar power plants (SPPs) and operating them but also for scaling up these activities across the entire island and subsequently upgrading the installed SPPs to generate more energy. The technical capabilities of our company and partners allow us to monitor and control all CSP installation processes in real-time, while our service department ensures prompt maintenance within hours, or even minutes. Our CSP installations have a significant operational lifespan of over 50 years without compromising energy generation, and they maintain their efficiency even at wind speeds of up to 20 m/s.