The European Solar Telescope (EST) project has reached a decisive stage, with the completion of the PDR (Preliminary Design Review) of the Buildings and Civil Works, which was given a very positive evaluation by the panel of reviewing experts. This marks the start of the detailed design and construction phase of the infrastructure which will contain the largest solar telescope in Europe.

The review, which began on September 2nd, finished with in-person meetings on the 21st and 22nd of October in the IACTEC building in Tenerife. During these sessions, experts in different fields discussed, together with the technical team of the EST, the main aspects of the preliminary design, which cover the buildings, installations, and civil works needed, at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, on the island of La Palma.

The review panel, whose president was Fernando Rueda of the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos in Aragón, was composed by Manuel García Román, of the Universidad de La Laguna in Tenerife as reviewer and Javier Herrera and Jorge Gmelch of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Miguel Estéves from the Institut für Sonnenphysik (Freiburg, Germany and Tenerife) and Vicente Sánchez, as observers. All of them stressed the high technical quality, the rigor, and the maturity of the documentation under review.

On behalf of the EST there was participation by Héctor Socas, Director of the EST Canary Foundation; Manuel Collados, the Principal Investigator of the EST for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias; Mary Barreto, Technical Director and Project Manager; and Alejandra Martín, the Administrator of the Canary EST foundation.

In addition there were present those responsible for the different areas of engineering which are leading the technical development of the project: Yanira Carballo, for Buildings and Public Works; Juan Cózar for Mechanical Engineering; Miguel Núñez for Systems Engineering; Jorge Quintero for Control Engineering; Claudia Ruiz, for Instrument Systems; and Pedro García for Installations.

The favorable results of this review back the depth of the work and allow the project to move on to its next phase with maximum guarantees of technical and operational quality, towards the building of the technical infrastructure which will house the European Solar Telescope at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos.

The next step will be the editing of the Basic Project and the environmental approval of the project, which should be carried out during the coming year, before the start of the building phase of the Telescope.