Solar City's sprawl in Spain

Germany's City Solar Group has announced three new multi-megawatt projects in Spain on the heels of an initial mammoth installation in the southwest of the country.

Solar City [ed. no relation to California Bay-Area solar installer SolarCity] says its new contracts with "an important investor" are for three further large-scale power plants totaling 25.75 MW in capacity.

Solar City, headquartered in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, is in the process of putting the finishing touches on its initial photovoltaic park in Beneixama, in Spain's Alicante province. The last of the 200 x 100 kWp installations are to be connected to the grid by August, according to the company.

While the Beneixama facility currently produces 8 megawatts (MW), it should be producing 20 in just over a month when the new array is connected and tracking. That should be ahead of other similarly-sized solar projects (for instance: South Korea building largest solar installation in world, and Suntech to supply world's largest solar power plant.)

Yet none of these installations will remain the largest for long. A 40 MW plant is being planned near Leipzig, Germany, to be operational by 2009.

The current largest photovoltaic installation in production is a 12 MW facility in Erlasee, Germany, as tracked by Atomstromfreie.

The Beneixama project was City Solar’s introduction to the Spanish market, “and at the same time, the best door-opener for further large-scale projects”, said Peer Piske, Head of the City Solar office in Madrid.

The latest contracts include three free-surface large-scale power plants. A 15 MW plant is planned for Mahora and a 0.75 MW plant in Bonete (both in Albacete Province) are to be built by City Solar with an adaptive tracking system the company has developed internally.

Another 10 MW plant is to built in Alconchel in Badajoz province, near the border with Portugal, but will not be equipped with tracking.

City Solar's tracking mechanism was developed internally. The company is using a one-axis adaptive system (some tracking systems can operate on two axes, not only rotating side to side, but up and down.) Each tracker positions ten solar modules.

The company says its trackers are already working successfully in power plants in Beneixama, and two plants in Germany, and have undergone eight months of intensive endurance testing.

“In total, we reckon on an increase in output of at least 22% in comparison with the fixed systems”, said Christof Lagaly, development team lead.

The first trackers will be installed in a small power plant with 750 KW capacity in Bonete, approximately 100 kilometres from Alicante.

Some 7,000 of the trackers are to be used in the 15 MW Mahora installation alone.

Building of the Mahora site will start at the beginning of September and will be completed at the latest by the middle of 2008, the company expects. City Solar forecasts an annual production of 28 million kilowatt hours, enough to supply a small town of 11,200 average homes.

The new 10 MW Alconchel site, located next to the medieval town of Alconchel (known for its castle "Castillo de Miraflores") is to reach a production of 15 million kWh, or enough power to supply 6,000 average households. Construction is underway.

The CO2 avoidance of the three new City Solar power plants in Spain corresponds to removing approximately 28,000 cars, the company said.

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