Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant, has said that it will be adding 1,400 new solar megawatts (MW) in Spain over the coming months as part of its commitment towards developing renewable sources of energy.

Spanish solar power technology

The company said it is currently executing 12 photovoltaic projects with a combined capacity of 550MW. Half of these will be located in Extremadura, where it is building the 80MW Almaraz I and II plants, which will be connected to the grid later this year. It is also building the Tagus complex in Alcántara, which comprises of four plants with a total capacity of 200MW.

Iberdola added that it is building six other facilities in Castilla y León and Andalusia using this technology, totalling 271MW. These are the Villarino plant (50 MW) in Salamanca; the Guillena project (144MW) in Seville; Cespedera (27MW) in Cadiz; and Virgen de Aremos III (50MW) in Palencia. 

Furthermore, there are plans in place to start construction this year on another six projects that will provide 873MW of new solar power in four autonomous communities: Ciudad Rodrigo (318MW) in Salamanca; Fuentes (50MW), Valbuena (50MW) and Manantiales (30MW) in Guadalajara; Peñarrubia (50MW) in Murcia; and Cedillo (375MW) in Cáceres.

The company said that it ended the first half of the year with more than 2,000MW of photovoltaic power installed in Spain, 800MW more than the same period last year – or a 55% increase. This new capacity has allowed it to increase its solar production in the country by 125% up to June 2022, to 1,067GW.

“These figures confirm the company's firm commitment to this renewable, inexhaustible and non-polluting energy source, capable of adapting to natural cycles and weather conditions, which offers the advantage of allowing production through both commercial-scale plants and small self-consumption facilities,” a statement from Iberdola said.

“Among the projects commissioned so far this year is the Francisco Pizarro project which, with 590MW of power, is the largest photovoltaic plant in Europe and the Iberdrola group's largest plant of this type in the world. Made up of 1.5m photovoltaic modules, it will generate enough clean energy to supply more than 334,000 homes and prevent the emission of 140,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere per year,” it added.

The company added that the Romeral and Olmedilla plants in Cuenca, each with 50MW, will produce clean energy for a population equivalent to more than 24,500 households per year, and close to 30,000 households per year, respectively.

Renewable energy promoted across Spain

In addition to these plants, Iberdrola will start production with 100MW of photovoltaic power at Puertollano, in Ciudad Real, where the company has the largest green hydrogen plant for industrial use in Europe, and the Revilla-Vallejera plant in Burgos, the first photovoltaic project promoted and developed by the company in Castilla y León, with 50MW of power.

In conclusion, the company statement pointed out that the company aims to double its renewable capacity to 60,000MW by 2025, rising to 95,000MW within the next five years after that. These growth ambitions are supported by the more than 10,800MW of renewable capacity under construction at the end of the first half of 2022, it said.