Multinational packaging and materials manufacturer Avery Dennison has commissioned a concentrated solar thermal (CST) platform and thermal storage unit at its production plant in Turnhout, Belgium.

The project will reduce the plant’s footprint by providing the heat equivalent to 2.3GWh of gas consumption. During summer months and high-sunshine periods, it will provide up to 100% of the factory’s heat demand.

The project contains a CST platform with 2,240 surface mirrors, a solar field peak yield of 2.7 GWh thermal power, and six thermal storage modules with a capacity of 5 MWh thermal power.

The platform site covers roughly 5,540 square meters and is touted to contain the largest installation of parabolic mirrors combined with thermal energy storage in an industrial setting in Europe.

The CST platform, built by Belgian engineering firm Azteq, will concentrate energy from direct sunlight into a collector tube filled with absorption liquid. The thermal energy from this process will be stored in ENERGYNEST’s ThermalBattery and dispatched on demand.