Mula Solar Photovoltaic Farm, Spain

The 494MW Mula Photovoltaic Farm Solar Farm is located in the municipality of Mula in the Murcia region of Spain.

The project is owned by renewable energy-focused fund manager Qualitas Energy and global private markets investment firm Northleaf Capital Partners.

Construction works started in 2018, and the solar PV farm entered operations in July 2019.

The project generates an estimated 0.75TWh of clean energy annually, enough to supply a city of 450,000 inhabitants.

At completion, Mula Solar Farm was the largest photovoltaic power station in Europe.

Mula PV Farm Details

The Mula solar plant covers an area of approximately 1,000-hectares (ha) within the municipality of Mula in the province of Murcia.

The project includes approximately 72-cell polycrystalline photovoltaic modules of 330W – 335W – 340W.

The photovoltaic ground installations were designed to be implemented on fixed metallic structures with no solar tracking.

The project comprises two electrical substations on the site that are interconnected by a 132kV high voltage underground line. The infrastructure also includes an internal 30kV medium voltage distribution network.

The renewable energy generated by the plant is supplied to ST. El Palmar transmission network junction via a 400kV high voltage network consisting of 20km evacuation line.

Funding

The development of the solar PV plant in Murcia entailed an investment of around €500m.

In September 2023, Qualitas Energy announced the closing of a refinancing worth around €280m for the Mula solar plant.

The project’s existing debt was refinanced with the participation of five financial institutions including BBVA, EDC, DekaBank, Unicaja, and Bankinter.

Kenta Capital served as the finance advisor for Northleaf Capital Partners and Qualitas Energy on this transaction.

Watson Farley & Williams served as the legal counsel, EY served as the model advisor, and Risk Management Advisors provided hedging advice.

Power Purchase Agreement for Mula Farm

In February 2023, Qualitas Energy signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) for the Mula solar photovoltaic plant.

Under the agreement, the renewable energy generated by the project will be sold to an IG global energy leader for ten years.

Contractors Involved

In November and December of 2017, engineering, geology and geotechnics consulting company IPMA conducted works corresponding to the geotechnical study and pull-out test for the Mula project.

The solar plant was developed by Cobra, a subsidiary of ACS Group.

In September 2018, Ingeteam secured a supply and installation contract for the Mula PV project. The contract included the supply of 238 PV inverters and the work to unload, position, install, connect and commission 74 inverter stations.

Spanish consultant TASO was responsible for the Mula PV project’s initial business plan and development, permitting, fundraising, and operationalisation and exploitation plan.

Técnicas del Cable supplied DC and LV cables for the project in 2018.

In August 2018, Trina Solar was contracted to provide 167MW of PV modules for the Mula project. Under the contract, Trina Solar was responsible for the supply of 496,000 units of its TSM-PE14H multi-crystalline modules with power outputs between 335W and 340W.

As agreed, Trina Sola provided PV modules for the project’s zone 1 and Risen Energy for zones 2 and 3.

Izharia Engineering provided engineering services including earthworks and drainage services, solar energy production studies and electrical and communications engineering. The company also developed the tender documentation for the high-voltage electrical evacuation infrastructure for the project.

Eiffage Energía built the electricity evacuation line for the solar farm, while Axial, Ercam and Esa Solar were associated with the project as structure manufacturers.

Acisa received the contract for the construction of a 400kV substation of the Mula photovoltaic plant.

In September 2019, Arteche Group was engaged to participate in the integration of the substations of the project.

Renewable Energy Advisors (REA) performed the engineering and technical consultancy work of the project including quality control of the entire plant.