Europe’s largest solar park goes online despite Covid-19

From pv magazine Spain

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola has commissioned the largest PV plant in Europe – the 500 MW Núñez de Balboa project – following the completion of construction in December 2019.

The $328 million project, which went into operation last week, is located between the municipalities of Usagre, Hinojosa del Valle, and Bienvenida, in southern Spain’s Extremadura region. Iberdrola developed it in partnership with local power provider Ecoenergías del Guadiana. It features 1,430,000 solar panels, 115 central inverters, and two substations.

Iberdrola managed to secure green financing from the European Investment Bank and Spain’s Official Credit Institute. It signed a PPA with Uvesco (BM Supermarcados) covering 391 MW of the project’s total capacity in November 2018, following the finalization of an initial PPA that it signed with financial services provider Kutxabank in July, in addition to another one signed in mid-October with telecoms service provider Euskaltel, which is based in Basque Country.

Iberdrola plans to install 3 GW of solar by 2022, of which 2 GW will be located in Extremadura. By 2030, the company aims to deploy approximately 10 GW. In June, it revealed plans to build two installations with a total capacity of 800 MW of solar near Cuenca, in Spain’s central-southern region of Castilla-La Mancha.