Iberdrola Finalises Construction of its 500 MW Solar Plant in 1 Year

Iberdrola has announced that it has completed the construction of Europe’s biggest solar photovoltaic plant, the Núñez de Balboa project in just one year.

Iberdrola has announced that it has completed the construction of what is now Europe’s biggest solar photovoltaic plant, the Núñez de Balboa project in just one year. The project had recently obtained its commissioning permit from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and for which Red Eléctrica de España (REE), the national grid, had started energisation tests. Based on these processes, the plant is forecast to start operations in the first quarter of 2020.

With the completion of Núñez de Balboa, with an installed capacity of 500 megawatts (MW) and an investment of nearly 300 million euros, Iberdrola moves forward in its plan to relaunch green energy in Spain, which envisages the installation of 3,000 MW by 2022, with Extremadura at the centre of its strategy.

Núñez de Balboa extends over an area of some 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) straddling the municipalities of Usagre, Hinojosa del Valle and Bienvenida in the province of Badajoz. The plant, promoted in collaboration with Ecoenergías del Guadiana, is a flagship renewable project that has broken records.

The company had also announced that it has placed Extremadura at the center of its renewable strategy in Spain, where it plans to install more than 2,000 MW of photovoltaic energy by 2022.

In addition to Núñez de Balboa (500 MW), the company has more than 1,300 MW in renewables in six pipeline solar PV projects: Francisco Pizarro (590 MW), located in Torrecillas de la Tiesa; Ceclavín (328 MW), in Alcántara; Arenales (150 MW), in Cáceres; Campo Arañuelo I, II and III (150 MW), in the district of Almaraz; and Majada Alata and San Antonio (50 MW each), in Cedillo. Furthermore, it has 300 MW grid access available with which to plan another solar PV project. 

The company plans to invest in renewable energies in Spain includes the installation of 3,000 new MW by 2022. By 2030, company forecasts point to the installation of 10,000 new MW. These actions will enable jobs to be created for 20,000 people. Currently, the company’s projects in construction and at the detail design stage – wind and solar – amount to more than 4,000 MW in Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Navarre, Aragon, Murcia, Cantabria and Andalusia.