Electric Utility Company Iberdrola To Commission 1,400 MW of New Solar Power

Spanish utility firm Iberdrola has announced that it will add 1,400 MW of new solar power in Spain in the coming months. As per the official statement, Iberdrola is currently executing 12 photovoltaic projects, with a combined installed capacity of 550 MW, half of them located in Extremadura, where Iberdrola is building the Almaraz I and II plants (80 MW), which will be connected to the grid this year, and the Tagus complex in Alcántara, comprising four plants with a total capacity of 200 MW.

Iberdrola is also building six other facilities in Castilla y León and Andalusia using solar PV technology, totalling 271 MW. These are the Villarino plant (50 MW) in Salamanca; the Guillena project (144 MW) in Seville; Cespedera (27 MW) in Cadiz; and Virgen de Aremos III (50 MW) in Palencia.

In addition, Iberdrola is looking to begin construction this year on another six projects that will provide 873 MW of new solar power in four autonomous communities: Ciudad Rodrigo (318 MW) in Salamanca; Fuentes (50 MW), Valbuena (50 MW) and Manantiales (30 MW) in Guadalajara; Peñarrubia (50 MW) in Murcia; and Cedillo (375 MW) in Cáceres.

125% More Solar Production Until June

Iberdrola said that it ended the first half of the year with more than 2,200 MW of photovoltaic power installed in Spain, 800 MW more than the same period last year, representing an increase of more than 55% in the period.

The new capacity has allowed the company to increase its solar production in the country by 125% up to June, to 1,067 GWh. An amount that would have required some 184 million cubic metres of gas to be generated by a combined cycle.

Spain’s drive has enabled the group to increase its global installed capacity in this technology by 56% – which has reached 3,448 MW – and to reach a total production of 1 .870 GWh.

Among the projects commissioned so far this year is the Francisco Pizarro project which, with 590 MW of power, is the largest photovoltaic plant in Europe and the Iberdrola group’s largest plant of this type in the world.

Mention should also be made of the Romeral and Olmedilla plants in Cuenca, each with 50 MW. The company will start production with 100 MW of photovoltaic power at Puertollano, in Ciudad Real, where Iberdrola has the largest green hydrogen plant for industrial use in Europe, and the Revilla-Vallejera plant in Burgos, the first photovoltaic project promoted and developed by the company in Castilla y León, with 50 MW of power.

Iberdrola now aims to double its renewable capacity to 60,000 MW by 2025, rising to 95,000 MW by 2030. This solid growth is confirmed by the more than 10,800 MW of renewable capacity under construction at the end of the first half of 2022.