Spanish Solar Power

Spain is known for its commitment to develop renewable and non-polluting sources of energy. Recently, the country has successfully amazed the world by building the world´s largest solar power plant in the Andalusian desert just outside Seville. The power plant consists of a concrete building that is 40-stories high, a field of 600 sun-tracking mirrors, and a receiver that converts concentrated solar energy from the heliostats into steam that eventually drives the turbines.

The power plant, which is known as PS20 and was developed by Abengoa, started operating in January. Since then, enough Spanish solar power has been generated to run 6,000 homes. The ultimate aim is to provide power for all of the 600,000 people that live in Seville. Compared to the traditional solar trough technology, solar tower technology is still in its initial stages, and this tower plant will be a significant proving ground.

Another striking example that proves the Spanish commitment to solar power was created when the Spanish town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet placed more than 450 solar panels on top of mausoleums at its cemetery to generate power. Flat, open land is not abundant in this part of the country, so the town decided that the graveyard was the only viable spot to place the panels. The panels provide enough electricity to power 60 homes. They rest on mausoleums holding five layers of coffins. Initially residents could not reconcile themselves to the idea, but town hall and cemetery officials launched a campaign, erected the panels at a low angle, to make them as unobtrusive as possible.

Some of the reasons responsible for the fast-faced development and implementation of Spanish solar power are the weather, the economic scenario and government legislation. Spain has clear skies and strong sunshine; in fact, it has more sunshine than any other European country. There is a high demand for air conditioning. There is increasing awareness about building insulation and the use of daylight. The Spanish government is committed to paying feed-in tariffs up to triple the market price for twenty five years in order to endorse solar energy. New building laws make mandatory the use of solar hot water and photovoltaic cells.

Spanish solar power is gradually moving in favor of solar tower technology, also known as CSP (Concentrated Solar Power), because it is seen to be simpler, cheaper and more efficient than the more traditional methods. More than fifty similar projects have been approved by the government, and the target is to generate more than 2GW of power from CSP by 2015. Spanish solar power technologies are also exporting their technology to Morocco, Algeria and the U.S. 80% of Spanish solar power is exported to Germany.