Solar

Iberdrola Renovables opens first solar thermal plant – €200 million, 50 megawatt capacity

Aerial view of the Puertollano solar thermal power plant.
Image courtesy of Iberdrola Renovables.

Iberdrola Renovables, the world’s largest wind farm developer, opened its first solar thermal power plant in the Puertollano, Ciudad Real, in Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha region.

The Puertollano solar thermal power plant has an installed capacity of 50 megawatts (MW). The facility covers 150 hectares that hosts 352 parabolic-cylinder collectors. The parabolic-cylinders hold a total of 120,000 parabolic mirrors, focusing solar thermal energy on 13,000 absorber tubes. The plant will produce enough electricity annually for 100,000 people, and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by about 90,000 tons a year that would otherwise be generated by a coal-fired plant. Total investment in the Puertollano solar thermal plant was about €200 million.

The Puertollano solar thermal plant is 90% owned by Iberdrola Renovables, and 10% by the Spanish Institute for Energy Diversification and Savings (IDAE).

Iberdrola Renovables has previously invested €2.4 billion in the Castilla-La Mancha region aside from the construction of the new solar thermal power plant. Aside from the new plant, Iberdrola Renovables has a total of 1,930 MW of installed renewable energy capacity in Castilla-La Mancha: 1,835 MW of wind power from 54 wind farms and 95 MW from small-scale hydroelectric plants.

Iberdrola Renovables is also currently building a 2-MW biomass plant in Corduente, Ciudad Guadalajara. The biomass plant will be fed by wood waste from the Alto Tajo Natural Park. The biomass plant will generate energy from wood waste as well as serve as a research project into biomass electricity production.

Iberdrola Renovables is the world’s leading developer, reporting at the first quarter of 2009 an installed wind capacity of 9,624 MW. Iberdrola Renovables also has the world’s largest renewable energy projects in development with 56,000 MW (including 10,000 MW in an agreement with wind turbine maker Gamesa).

Iberdrola Renovables S.A.is the fastest growing division of Spain’s Iberdrola Group. Iberdrola Renovalbes’ stock is separately listed from its mother company on Spain’s Electronic Trading System as IBR.MC1. As of March 15, its stock was down 0.62%, settling at €3.21.


-  Mike R. Lopez

Source:

¹ http://www.iberdrolarenovables.es