TotalEnergies has broken ground on its five PV plants in Guillena, Spain.
The projects will a total installed power of 263MW and prevent the emission of around 140,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
The event was attended by the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mines Jorge Paradela Gutiérrez, mayor of Guillena Lorenzo Medina Moya, and general director of TotalEnergies Renewables Spain Yago Mancebo Ferreiro.
The five plants to be built are the 51MW Postigo, 52MW Arbotante, 52MW Pilastra, 53MW La Noria and 55MW La Carrascosa.
In total, the facilities will have nearly 400,000 665Wp bifacial photovoltaic modules. Once in operation, they will generate enough electrical energy to cover the estimated annual consumption of more than 150,000 homes.
During the construction of the PV installations, declared of strategic interest by the Government of Andalusia, more than 800 direct and indirect jobs will be created in the next 12 months said TotalEnergies.
In addition, the developer has signed a collaboration agreement with the Guillena City Council to promote employment and the socioeconomic development of the territory, including a vocational training program incorporating local labour.
“Our company has made a firm commitment to promoting renewable energy in Spain and the start of work on these projects in Guillena is a great step forward in achieving our objectives and those of the country,” said Ferreiro.
“With 3GW of solar energy already under development in Andalusia, Madrid, Murcia, Aragon and Castilla La Mancha, we continue to consolidate the relevant role of Spain in Europe as a benchmark in sustainability and clean energy.”
Mayor Medina recognized in his speech the importance of environmental conservation: “We are on land and in plots traditionally closely linked to the municipality and the people of Guillena.
“For this reason, and being aware of how important the landscape impact of these projects is for everyone, we wanted to express our commitment to society and the environment by signing a collaboration agreement with all the actors involved in this cluster.”
Paradela added “initiatives like this are generators of wealth and local employment as well as energizing our towns and regions”.
“Furthermore, these five projects are fully aligned with the energy policy promoted by the Government of Andalusia in its commitment to renewable energies, not only to contribute to the decarbonization of the economy, but also to lower electricity costs and generate opportunities. of economic development,” he said.
Other institutional authorities participated to the ceremony, including Secretary General of Energy Manuel Larrasa Rodríguez, Territorial Delegate of Sustainability Concepción Gallardo, Territorial Delegate of Industry Antonio Ramirez, Territorial Delegate of Development Francisco Juárez and Guillena town planning councillor Antonio Garrido Zambrano.
TotalEnergies said guaranteeing the development of its solar parks to be fully compatible with the protection of the biodiversity of the areas they are installed at is a priority so the company has launched a pioneering chair in Europe, the Steppe Forward Chair, together with the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Forest Science and Technology Center of Catalonia (CTFC),
This aims to generate knowledge and specific application protocols so the PV arrays respect the environment and tbiodiversity of their surroundings.
Prior to the construction of the sites, preliminary studies are being carried out to understand the populations and habits of the local birdlife in order to establish the necessary compensatory measures.