March 12, 2008

Madrid, Spain: ACCIONA Develops Solar Projects in Extremadura

ACCIONA Energía is developing projects in four renewable technologies in the region of Extremadura in south west Spain, that represent an investment of around 900 million euros and a total capacity of 359 megawatts.

Extremadura Regional Government President Guillermo Fernández Vara, accompanied by other authorities, today visited the construction work on the 50 MW solar thermal plant that the company is building at Alvarado and later inaugurated a 6.28 MWp photovoltaic solar garden at Aldea del Conde. Both locations are close to the city of Badajoz. During the ceremony held at the site, speeches were made by the General Manager of ACCIONA Energía, Carmen Becerril, the Mayor of Badajoz, Miguel Ángel Celdrán, and the President of the Regional Government of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara.

Apart from these two facilities, between now and 2010 ACCIONA plans to build another solar thermal plant at Majadas de Tiétar, a biomass plant at Miajadas (both in Cáceres province) and a photovoltaic solar garden at Castuera (Badajoz).

The thermal solar plant at Alvarado is the first of those developed by the company in Spain and represents an investment of 236 million euros. When it is grid connected in the second quarter of 2009, it will produce 102 million kilowatts/hour per annum -equivalent to the electricity consumption of around 28,000 homes-, which will avoid the emission of 98,000 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere from coal-fired power stations.

The facility will have 74 linear kilometers of parabolic trough concentrators (a total of 184,320 reflectors) on a surface area of 130 hectares (equivalent to 130 football pitches). The reflectors concentrate the sun's rays into a receiver tube located in the focal point and raise the temperature of the fluid that circulates inside to 400 degrees. This heat is then passed through a heat exchanger to produce steam and drive a turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity. After the voltage has been raised to 220 kV the power is injected into the grid.

The solar garden at Aldea del Conde inaugurated today has been developed and is operated by ACCIONA Solar. Its capacity is 6.28 MW and consists of 450 Buskil k12 solar trackers using in-house technology. Lined up over a surface area of 34 hectares, a total of 40,500 photovoltaic panels generate 11.1 million kilowatt-hours per annum, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 3,000 homes and avoiding the emission of 10.677 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere from conventional coal-fired power stations.

Fifty private investors are the owners of the solar garden. The idea of grouping the panels on a single site to share infrastructures and services means lower equipment and maintenance costs and better performance and security.

Further details about: ACCIONA