JUN 10

High on the Alantejo Plain, near the small town of Mouro in Eastern Portugal, the world’s biggest solar photovoltaic farm is nearing completion. When the £250 million ($500 million) farm is fully operational later this year, it will be twice as large as any project of its kind in the world. It is expected to supply 45MW of electricity every year, enough to power 30,000 homes.

The farm, located in an area with the highest annual sunshine per square meter in Europe, is made up of 2520 giant solar panels, positioned at a 45 degrees angle, to track the sun through 240 degrees every day.Portugal, with no oil, coal or gas reserves and no expertise in nuclear power, has some of the most ambitious targets for renewables in Europe, and aims to become a leader in the European clean-tech revolution. According to economics minister Manuel Pinho, “We have to reduce our dependence on oil and gas. What seemed extravagant in 2004 when we decided to go for renewables now seems to have been a very good decision.” By 2020, he expects Portugal to generate 31% of its energy from renewables.

The rate of progress is certainly impressive. In less than three years the country has trebled hydropower capacity, quadrupled wind power and invested in flagship solar projects like the one at Mouro. Crucially, this progress has been achieved on the back of a favorable economic and political climate. The government has guaranteed price-levels for the long-term and projects are not delayed by state indecision or hold-ups in the planning system. By 2012, companies are expected to invest £10 billion ($20 billion) in renewables, rising to up to £100 billion ($200 billion) by 2020.

While this project is to be of record-holding size, it will be overshadowed eventually by a plant here in the US currently in the planning stage, which is expected to produce 500MW - far more than this plant. The current largest solar farm in the US is well below Portugal's upcoming farm, sitting at 14MW. Of course, it seems as if lots of "world's largest" solar farms are in the works, so it's nice to see at least this one will be a reality.

Via The Guardian; photo credit Teri Pengilley

Comments (13)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Largest?
written by Anthony, June 10, 2008

I assume by "World’s Largest Solar Farm" you mean "World’s Largest PV Solar Farm". There is a 64MW Solar thermal plant near Boulder City, NV called Nevada Solar One.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

How much energy?
written by pedant, June 11, 2008

You quoted the Guardian directly, "It is expected to supply 45MW of electricity every year." Unfortunately that doesn't make sense - it's like saying that a car will travel 45mph every year.

Watts (whether they be KW or MW or GW) measure how quickly energy flows, not how much of it will flow in total. To use the car analogy, it's the speed of the system. When talking about energy production it's usually referring to the top speed - the maximum rate of energy production at some point in time. With solar that usually occurs around noon on a cloudless day, dropping to zero during the night.

If this installation has a peak capacity of 45MW and it spent an hour under full sun, it would produce 45MWh (megawatt-hours) of energy. That's like a car travelling at 45mph for one hour... it goes 45 miles.

During a full day this sun-tracking array might get the equivalent of ten hours full sunlight, producing 450MWh of energy. Scale that up to a year and you'd be talking in the vicinity of 165GWh. That's the kind of figure the article should have used.

Those are reasonable estimates for 30 thousand homes: each home would get about 15KWh of energy each day. For comparison, the average consumption in my part of the world is 30KWh per day per household, while my home runs at 8KWh per day due to efficiency measures.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

16k per home
written by S, June 11, 2008

So thats 16k dollars per home and they use on average 500 dollars a year of electricity and makers quote up to 20 years lifespan for the cells. The economics doesnt seem to make much sense.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by jacob, June 11, 2008

Pedant, i think the output was probably 45mWh which is a unit of work. Meaning the transfer of energy from one system to another. the average home in Australia uses something like 16kWh, and assuming that Portugal is about the same, then 30,000 homes would be 480,000,000 W/h which is 480mW...yeah, this is confusing me.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

This cannot be accurate
written by Hai, June 11, 2008

At over $10/watt of generating capacity, this is no where worthwhile. It doesn't even say that the panels have tracking, but are fixed installations. If indeed this was the price they paid, someone got jipped quite badly. And definitely, the silly correction of 45MW / yr should be fixed immediately. It should say, generates 45MW-year of electricity, or 45MW of power, period. These two numbers are indeed different, because 45MW-year entails capacity at night as well, which at 10 hour sunlight, means the generating capacity is actually 108MW. So storage is necessary. Don't forget capacity for solar is significantly different from capacity for base-line generators.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Two "glitches" in the article
written by Miguel, June 11, 2008

Hello,
I've noticed two "glitches" in the article:
1 - it's Alentejo, not Alantejo
2 - it's Moura, not Mouro.
Thank you.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Yes, it's accurate!
written by Pedro, June 11, 2008

In response to Hai:
Hi! I'm from Portugal, and I am very interested and excited about this project, since Portugal really doesn't have the same capabilites of producing energy that other countries have. By 2005, Patrick Monteiro tried to built an atomic power plant, but the project failed, and it wasn't that appealing to the general public. But this one seems to have concordance among the general public. Anyway, just wanted to inform you that the data in this article is indeed accurate. I've read the same exact data in Portuguese magazines a few times.
Greets

• 
• +0
• 
• 

There is no more fossil fuels
written by Enrique, June 11, 2008

Solar energy makes sense because we are at the end of the fossil fuel era. As fossil fuels becomes more scarce, the price for them will continue to rise.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Economics?
written by Brownman, June 12, 2008

A few people here seem to be missing the point: Renewable energy has nothing to do with saving money. There will come a time when the finite resources we use for energy will be all but exhausted, and when that time comes cost will be the last of our worries. Add that to the drop in our carbon footprint and I'd say we have a pretty damn good reason for spending obscene amounts of money on technologies we don't yet need (but will).

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Humans are just a viral infestation to t
written by Bipi, June 20, 2008

Humans are primitive primates. They tend to care a lot about being the best, having the largest whatever, etc., etc. :-). They possess egos that hardly fit on this planet. We are simply too many.

Our governments already assure that lots of us are being killed prematurely by spreading lots of cheap and unhealthy food that causes heart failure and other diseases.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

running out of fuel???
written by cannon, July 08, 2008

"we are at the end of the fossil fuel era."

are you kidding????
there is enough oil and gas in the united states to run 60 million vehicals and provide energy for 160 million homes for 60 years.
and if we convert the coal reserves into synfuels, we have 400 years worth of ewnergy, just in this country.
400 years does not sound anywhere near "out of fuel" to me.
the only thing standing between us and energy independence is the enviromentalist movement.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

re: running out of fuel
written by phenila, July 13, 2008

Cannon, your numbers don't add up. The United States imports 75% of the energy it uses. Right now, at this moment, the world's oil reserves have been overstated by as much as 50%. Think about what you said: there is enough oil and gas in the united states to run 60 million vehicles and provide energy for 160 million homes for 60 years. Wow. I think you just answered why we need renewable energy sources. In 60 years, we will be tapped out. And that is assuming that oil reserves worldwide are what has been officially reported and not exaggerated as some top oil men have stated.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by charles nehls, June 08, 2009

Every parking lot in America could be a solar farm ... build canopies put solar panels on roofs park cars under.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment