Enel Green Power España (EGPE) has begun construction on three solar plants, with a total output of 126.8MW, in the Extremadura region of Spain.
Image: Spanish Solar power plant Guadarranque. Photo: Courtesy of Enel Spa.
The three solar facilities include the Navalvillar, Valdecaballero and Castilblanco solar PV parks, which will be located in the municipalities of Casas de Don Pedro and Talarrubias. Each of the solar plants will have more than 42MW of capacity. The total investment required to build the three projects is €100m.
The solar plants will include more than 372,000 PV modules and are expected to begin commercial operations by the end of next year. Once fully operational, these facilities could generate nearly 250GWh of clean electricity, while avoiding more than 165,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
Enel’s global renewable energy business line Enel Green Power head Antonio Cammisecra said: “These three projects further strengthen our presence in Spain, where we have started construction of ten new renewable projects over the last two months.
“In addition to actively expanding the company’s presence in the country, our aim is to continue promoting innovation by applying cutting-edge technologies based on digitalisation and robotisation, as well as sustainability by implementing best practices already in place in our construction sites worldwide.”
Enel stated that it will deploy new construction practices and tools at the three sites including drones for topographic survey, smart tracking of components like solar panels, and main transformers and cables.
The company will also use advanced digital platforms and software solutions to monitor construction progress and remotely support site activities and plant commissioning.
The three solar plants are part of seven projects, with total capacity of 399MW, awarded to the company by the Spanish Government’s third renewable energy auction held last July.
The other four projects include Totana, located in Murcia, whose construction started in September and three PV parks located in Extremadura in Logrosán, in the Province of Cáceres, whose construction started in October this year.
Last May, EGPE also secured 540MW of wind power capacity in the renewable tender. The total solar and wind capacities awarded in the auctions have a combined capacity of 879MW and represent more than €800m of investment by 2020. Once operational, these projects will increase EGPE’s portfolio by 52.4%.