Sun Shines on Europe's Largest Solar Power Project

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The largest solar power park under construction in Europe has received a 280 million-euro ($317 million) financial boost from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Spanish state-owned bank Instituto de Crédito Oficial.

The Nunez de Balboa solar power plant in the Extremadura region of western Spain will have a generating capacity of 500 megawatts (MW). It is owned by Iberdrola S.A. (BMAD:IBE) (Bilbao, Spain). The EIB is supplying 145 million euro ($161 million) in funding while another 140 million ($156 million) is coming from Instituto de Crédito Oficial. The facility covers a surface area of close to 1,000 hectares, and will be able to supply energy to 250,000 people while offsetting the emissions of 215,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Nunez de Balboa is scheduled to come online in 2020. The construction phase will create more than 1,000 jobs. The project also includes the development of the infrastructure needed to transmit power generated to the electricity grid.

EIB Vice-President Emma Navarro said: "We are very happy to be supporting a project that will strengthen Spanish and European leadership in the transition towards a low-emissions economy. Our involvement demonstrates the EIB's strong commitment to climate action. The EU bank is the biggest multilateral financer of projects that contribute to climate action, supporting projects like this one that reduce contaminant emissions while generating economic growth and employment."

Ignacio Galán, president of Iberdrola, added: "This new agreement guarantees our investment in Núñez de Balboa, and we are continuing to work towards our target of tripling our wind and solar capacity in Spain by 2030. The deal forms part of Iberdrola's commitment to a sustainable energy model that allows the transition to a low-carbon economy."

Spain lags behind the rest of Europe in terms of solar rollout despite leading the way a decade ago, when government subsidies were generous. In 2018, new photovoltaic power increased by just 261.7 MW, a 94% increase over 2017's 145 MW and 145% over 2016's 55 MW. In contrast, other European Union (EU) countries were far busier, with 3 gigawatts (GW) installed by Germany, 1.64 GW in Turkey and 1.5 GW in the Netherlands. Globally, in 2018 there were 44 GW installed in China, 10.6 GW in the U.S., 8.3 GW in India, 6.6 GW in Japan and 5.3 GW in Australia. By the end of this year, the Spanish solar organization UNEF predicts that the country's total solar power capacity will be more than 4 GW.

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