Solar Turbines, 90 years of history

Founded in 1927 as an airline company in Prudden – San Diego and later renamed to Solar Aircraft Company, the organisation evolved and developed during the second world war, producing exhaust manifolds for US aircraft and high temperature components, with a continued focus on pioneering techniques, until the development of the first gas turbines and jet engines. This was the beginning of a decades-long journey that eventually led Solar Turbines to become the world leader in the industrial gas turbines and turbomachinery packages sectors.

Tailored energy for different business needs

Today, Solar Turbines can count on more than 16,000 turbines operating in the Power Generation and Oil & Gas segments and is present in over 100 countries, with more than 2,000 Megawatts installed. The Company’s numbers are also significant in the Pulp & Paper industry: over 150 total machines, 20 units operating on Tissue plants in direct drying mode, for a total of 232 Megawatts, installations that help and support customers to obtain operational savings of over 30% in their production and utility costs.

The Solar Turbines Group is able to offer and support its customers in every project phase, starting with a feasibility analysis and the selection of the turbine that best integrates with the specific production process, all the way to the project implementation phase, in collaboration with leading suppliers of Tissue technologies and machinery. The Company’s integration towards the production process, with a focus on Solution Provider, was recognised by over 1,500 customers, which turned to the solutions provided by Solar Turbines for a wide range of industrial applications in order to obtain savings on operating costs and reduce their CO2 emissions.

Customer care & lifecycle support

The team of experts operating in more than 60 locations around the world is able to intervene directly on site – 24/7, 365 days a year – to resolve any electrical, process or control-related problems. Thanks to the significant number of turbines installed around the world, our Analytics System allows our technicians to capture and analyse vast amounts of statistical data in real time and then apply a predictive diagnosis on the installations, improving their performance and security and therefore extending their expected lifetime.

This predictive system makes it possible to intervene quickly and above all at scheduled intervals according to the customers’ production needs, minimising any related downtime.

The most energy efficient solutions for the tissue production

Industry 4.0

In 2004 Solar Turbines introduced the Company’s first direct drying applications based on gas turbines, directly using the exhaust gases produced by turbines for drying paper in Yankee hoods. The use of this technology has since spread internationally, thanks to the significant cost savings obtained in the tissue paper and pulp & paper industries.

Subsequently, within an Industry 4.0 perspective, Solar Turbines has developed new energy solutions designed to optimise the entire cogeneration process, with the full integration of operating parameters external and internal to the production system itself, capable of generating significant benefits both in terms of costs and in relation to the management of the equipment. In practice, this is achieved through the integration and management of all data that can be collected from the plant, in order to balance the production of heat and power with changes to production processes, tariffs, incentives and opportunities for load sharing, in order to maximise cost savings.

By relying on an integrated data-driven approach, Solar Turbines is able to generate a greater added value of production, leading to cost savings and increased competitiveness. Moreover, from 2001 to 2017, the optimised use of production processes has made it possible to obtain saving of over 6,000 million tons of CO2 emissions.

The future is already here

Today, Solar Turbines introduces the renewed Taurus 70 and Titan 130 turbines, redesigned to be even more efficient in the cogeneration segment, allowing Customers to benefit from more competitive production processes. The continuous focus on research and on the renewal of its product range makes Solar Turbines an ideal partner to help you meet the challenges of tomorrow in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability.