The Cedillo solar photovoltaic (PV) plant is a 375MW solar PV power project planned to be developed in the town of Cedillo in Cáceres, Spain.
Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola is the owner of the renewable project.
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Once complete, the new plant will have the capacity to supply renewable power to 178,000 homes, which is more than the population of a city such as Badajoz and prevent the emission of 77,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
Additionally, the project will generate 800 jobs during peak construction phase.
Iberdrola secured the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the construction of the solar PV project in September 2022. The construction works are also slated to begin in the same year.
Location and Site details
The Cedillo PV Project will be located on a communal farm in the town of Cedillo in Cáceres.
The farm is owned by several local residents, who will be able to continue their livestock farming activities in the area following the development.
The solar PV project is also backed by the Town Council and the Cedillo Agrarian Society.
In Cedillo, Iberdrola also has two additional photovoltaic plants called Majada Alta and San Antonio, with a combined capacity of 100MW. The commissioning of the facilities commenced in August 2022.
The two facilities will comprise around 250,000 solar panels to produce 156,000MWh of electricity per year.
Iberdrola is also planning to set up the first solar community for the entire village in the municipality of Cedillo. The project is expected to reduce electricity bills for the residents of the area.
As part of the initiative, the company will install small photovoltaic plants on the roofs of the municipal facilities and on the area provided by the City Council.
Project infrastructure and power evacuation
The Cedillo Solar PV Project will consist of more than 576,000 bifacial photovoltaic modules.
The bifacial PV modules, which have two light sensitive surfaces to support higher energy generation, will produce more than 582,400MWh of indigenous green energy per year. This will in turn eliminate consumption of 97 million cubic metres of gas annually.
The renewable energy produced by the solar PV project will be evacuated through an encapsulated substation, thereby avoiding the installation of new evacuation network.
The encapsulated substation is serving the Majada Alta and San Antonio plants and a hydroelectric plant of around 500MW capacity located in the same municipality.
The substation infrastructure were made in Italy and were transported to the site via containers weighing more than 50tonnes.
Overall, the substation covers an area of around 300m2, significantly less compared to a 10,000m2 space required for such type of infrastructure.
The substation was constructed to ensure minimum environmental impact on the Tagus International Natural Park (a protected area between Spain and Portugal) and its surroundings.
Iberdrola will also implement special measures to preserve the environment during the construction of the photovoltaic plant.
Contractors involved
Local supplier Faramax Trafo will supply transformers for the solar PV project, while IMEDEXSA of Casar de Cáceres has won the contract to supply towers of the evacuation power line.
The environmental studies for the Cedillo Solar PV Project have been completed by Ecoenergías del Guadiana of Extremadura.
Iberdrola has contracted IPROCEL for the owner engineering services of the plant. Before this contract, IPROCEL provided similar services during the first phase of the project that involved installation of 100MW of power infrastructure.
This contract with IPROCEL is a part of the framework contract signed in 2020 by the two companies that encompasses provision of services such as site management, project management, electromechanical assembly, health, safety, commissioning, topography, quality and environment, contract management, and civil works supervision in wind farms and PV plants.
