Spain

Spanish energy company, Gas Natural Fenosa has announced that construction is underway on the 49 MW La Nava PV project, its first solar project in Spain’s central region of Ciudad Real. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

The solar PV park will be constructed in the Spanish municipality of Alcalá de Guadaíra, in the southern region of Andalusia. The facility will sell power to Norway-based power provider, Statkraft.

In a new report, the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Digital Agenda has predicted that solar will become the country’s largest electricity source by the end of the next decade. Cumulative installed PV power could even reach 77 GW by the end of 2030, according to the most bullish scenario drafted by the Spanish government.

The Danish wind specialist and the renewable energy unit of the Portuguese utility have installed the 3.3 MW power facility near Cadiz, in the Spanish region of Andalucia. Vestas, however, has said that this project does not represent a step into the solar business.

Investments in new large-scale solar energy projects in Spain are expected to surpass €4 billion over the next two years. Meanwhile, the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha is planning to reduce the timeframe for the authorization process for solar and renewables from 12 to nine months.

The power purchase agreement (PPA) relates to large-scale PV projects planned to be operational by 2020. The buyer of the power generated by the solar facilities is Spain’s power provider, Audax. 495 MW of the capacity will be located in Spain, while the remaining 165 MW will be installed in Portugal.

The production unit of Spain’s five-year idled solar cell maker, Cel Celis has been acquired by Bashmor Engineering. The new investor plans to restart manufacturing activities at the factory in Bembimbre, and to double capacity to 70 MW within a year.

The solar plans of the German independent investment and asset manager in Spain, Italy and Portugal are part of a broader plan to further invest in renewables, including wind and hydropower.

The Italian solar plant operator has decided to re-enter the Italian PV market, as costs for large-scale solar are now under €1 million/MW and conditions for unsubsidized projects are improving. Overall, it plans to invest around €800 million in solar in the two southern European countries over the next five years.

The Italian utility has started approval proceedings to build six “grid-parity” projects totaling 257 MW in the region of Extremadura, while the U.K.-based developer is planning to build a 45.6 MW solar plant for the spot market in Andalusia.