Solar Energy: The largest Solar Energy in the World in Moura, Portugal, will produce 93GWh of energy.
In the town of
Moura in Portugal,
The Spanish Company Acciona, the world’s leader in renewal energy, built the largest Solar Energy Power Station, with a capacity of 93GWh per year.
This was the dream of José Maria Pos-de-Mina, Mayor of Moura, in the southern Portuguese province of Alentejo. He has been working on this 261 Million Euros (approximate US $339 Million) project for six years. The Power station covers 617.76 acres, near the area with the “highest temperature of the country”.
Accordingly to Francisco Aleixo, General Director of
Amper Central Solar, that installed and runs the Amareleja Central, in the grounds of Acciona property, said to the Portuguese News Agency Lusa, that the central has 2,520 plates, each one with 104 solar panels that rotates following the Sun.
With the installed capacity of 46.41 Megawatts (MW), the Power Station, started working four months ago and it will produce in the next 25 years, 93 GigaWatts/hour (GWh) of energy per year. This will be sufficient to produce energy for 35 thousand homes and avoid 90 thousand tons of polluting gases to the environment (CO2).
Francisco Aleixo, also mentioned, that during the installation, the plant employed 220 workers, creating 15 permanent jobs in Maintenance, installed a production factory of photovoltaic panels, that it will generate another “100 to 110” jobs.
Mr. Aleixo said that Acciona, when got Amper Central Solar, created by the Municipality of Moura, to build and run the plant, made available to the town two funds.
One of the funds, in the value of three million Euros (approximate US $3,900,000), it will be for the start of “Tecnopólo de Moura”, dedicated to invest and create enterprises in the sector of renewal energies. The other fund of 500 thousand Euros (approximate US $650,000), will be for construction of infra-structures of social benefits to the area.
The new Power Station is quite well known, for being the largest in the world, also for being a “learning show case” of potential photovoltaic technology. Still in its infancy, the technology is already pushing ahead to the future.
Mr. Aleixo mentioned this is a technology that can be used to start a new generation of large or small Centrals, in the new regime that permits to the consumer, to produce electricity from their homes or buildings thru, micro-systems of Renewal energies.
Portugal has, besides this plant in the district of Beja, seven more Solar Plants. Three in the area of Ferreira do Alentejo, two in Mertola, one in Serpa and another in Almodôvar.