Amareleja - the world's biggest photovoltaic power plant
Name of the project
Amareleja - the world's biggest photovoltaic power plant
Country
Portugal
Description
In Amareleja, in the interior region of Portugal which largest town is Moura, has been built by ACCIONA the largest solar photovoltaic plant in the world, with a 46MW peak and 10MW average with 93 KW-h per year. The site occupies 250hectares of land and the company owns 320 hectares total. Since 2008, the plant is fully operational and takes advantage of the feed in tariff established in Portugal. The labour was sourced mainly from local population and workers were trained on the job by the company as needed.
Project developer
ACCIONA Solar
Start date
30-11-2007
Total investment (€)
261 Million
Financing sources
Private investment
Initiator
AMPER Solar whose shareholders were Moura City Council (88%), Comoiprel (2%)Renatura Networks.com (10%)
Investor(s)
ACCIONA Solar
Project owner
ACCIONA Solar
Actors who receive benefits
Local community
Background information
The Decree-law 33_A of February 16th, 2005 modified the system of feed-in tariffs, establishing a new calculation system with a formula that takes the technology into account, as well as the environmental aspects and the inflation rate through the index of prices to the consumer. In 2007 a new tariff for emerging technologies, such as Concentrated Solar Power and wave energy, was introduced. ACCIONA acquired the total capital of Amper Solar that previously owned the rights to the installation.
Type of benefit sharing mechanism
Local employment
Renewable energy source
Solar energy
Application of BSM
Local employment: The creation of such a pioneering and substantially large project has created employment which was sourced mainly from local population. Workers were trained on the job by the company as needed. An average of 150 workers were employed on the site. A small company was also created in the region to carry out some of the panel assembly. This company continues to assemble PV components for external sale.
Factors which contributed to the success of the project
Highly favorable national legislation with higher feed in tariff for CSP projects
Favorable physical and socio conditions
Favorable physical and socio conditions
Roles of the different stakeholders
A key role was played by the project developer who has successfully took up the initiative started by the previous society and has involved and trained local population in the construction process.
Planned production of MW by your project
64
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