Iberdrola has started to commission two new photovoltaic plants in Extremadura. These facilities, called Majada Alta and San Antonio, are located in the Cáceres town of Cedillo and have a combined capacity of 100 megawatts, enough to supply clean energy to 45,000 households, more than the population of a town like Plasencia.Together, these installations consist of around 250,000 solar panels that will produce 156,000 MWh of electricity per year. An amount that would have required more than 26 million cubic metres of gas to be generated by a combined cycle. The plants will avoid the emission into the atmosphere of 28,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. With their commissioning, Iberdrola now operates twenty renewable energy facilities in Extremadura, where it currently has 3,867 MW of installed green power, 47% of which corresponds to the 12 solar plants that the company has in operation in the region.The construction of this project has been a major technological and logistical challenge to ensure the minimum environmental impact on the surroundings of the Tagus International Natural Park, a protected area between Spain and Portugal.The company has undertaken a complex solution to jointly evacuate the energy produced by these photovoltaic plants and the almost 500 MW hydroelectric plant also located in the municipality.To avoid using large areas of land, the company has installed an encapsulated substation of only 300 m2, compared to the 10,000 square meters of land usually required for infrastructures of this type. Manufactured in Italy, it had to be transported by ship from Venice to Seville along the waters of the Guadalquivir and, from there, it travelled through Andalusia and Extremadura in large lorries.The substation was inserted in containers placed on a six-metre-deep structure, through which all the cables that distribute the power to the grid are connected. Each of these containers weighs more than 50 tonnes and large overhead cranes were needed to position them without interfering with the four evacuation lines of the hydroelectric power plant.This innovative infrastructure will also serve a third 375 MW photovoltaic plant, which will avoid the installation of new evacuation networks, promoting environmental protection and integration into the territory. This facility, backed by the town council and the Cedillo Agrarian Society, is currently being processed by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. The plant will be located on a communal farm owned by a large part of the residents of Cedillo, who will be able to continue their livestock farming activities.
Iberdrola has started to commission two new photovoltaic plants in Extremadura. These facilities, called Majada Alta and San Antonio, are located in the Cáceres town of Cedillo and have a combined capacity of 100 megawatts, enough to supply clean energy to 45,000 households, more than the population of a town like Plasencia.Together, these installations consist of around 250,000 solar panels that will produce 156,000 MWh of electricity per year. An amount that would have required more than 26 million cubic metres of gas to be generated by a combined cycle. The plants will avoid the emission into the atmosphere of 28,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. With their commissioning, Iberdrola now operates twenty renewable energy facilities in Extremadura, where it currently has 3,867 MW of installed green power, 47% of which corresponds to the 12 solar plants that the company has in operation in the region.The construction of this project has been a major technological and logistical challenge to ensure the minimum environmental impact on the surroundings of the Tagus International Natural Park, a protected area between Spain and Portugal.The company has undertaken a complex solution to jointly evacuate the energy produced by these photovoltaic plants and the almost 500 MW hydroelectric plant also located in the municipality.To avoid using large areas of land, the company has installed an encapsulated substation of only 300 m2, compared to the 10,000 square meters of land usually required for infrastructures of this type. Manufactured in Italy, it had to be transported by ship from Venice to Seville along the waters of the Guadalquivir and, from there, it travelled through Andalusia and Extremadura in large lorries.The substation was inserted in containers placed on a six-metre-deep structure, through which all the cables that distribute the power to the grid are connected. Each of these containers weighs more than 50 tonnes and large overhead cranes were needed to position them without interfering with the four evacuation lines of the hydroelectric power plant.This innovative infrastructure will also serve a third 375 MW photovoltaic plant, which will avoid the installation of new evacuation networks, promoting environmental protection and integration into the territory. This facility, backed by the town council and the Cedillo Agrarian Society, is currently being processed by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. The plant will be located on a communal farm owned by a large part of the residents of Cedillo, who will be able to continue their livestock farming activities.
