World’s first industrial-scale solar fuel plant
Main specifications
Total mirror surface area: 1’500 m2
Solar input power: 600 kW
Tower height: 20 meters
Financed by Synhelion + EUR 3.92 M from BMWK
Brainergy Park Jülich, Germany
Customers: Swiss International Air Lines and other key customers
The road that led to DAWN
See below to learn about the most important milestones that led to the construction of DAWN, the world’s first industrial-scale solar fuel plant.
2022

Synhelion starts construction of DAWN
With the groundbreaking ceremony, we mark the start of construction work on DAWN – the world’s first industrial demonstration plant to produce synthetic fuels using solar heat. The facility will be the first to demonstrate the entire process from concentrating sunlight to producing synthetic liquid fuel on an industrial scale.
2022

Syngas production on industrial scale
In 2022, Synhelion produced the world’s first solar syngas on an industrial scale at the DLR solar tower in Jülich (DE), reaching the last decisive technological milestone to start the industrial production of solar fuels.
2019

Medium-scale demonstration
In 2019, the SUN-to-LIQUID project produced solar jet fuel at the IMDEA Energy solar concentrating plant in Madrid (ES) within the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 program.
2019

Small-scale demonstration
In 2019, we also demonstrated the Sun-to-Liquid technology under real field conditions in the centre of Zurich, Switzerland. The solar mini-refinery at ETH Zurich produced the world’s first carbon-neutral fuel from ambient air and sunlight.
2014

Proof of concept
After decades of top research at ETH Zurich, we produced the world’s first solar jet fuel from H2O and CO2 in the lab, proving that the Sun-to-Liquid technology not only works on paper but also in real life.