Naturgy has started construction work on Picón I and Picón II, two new photovoltaic solar energy plants in the Ciudad Real province, more specifically in Porzuna, out of the three planned in the company’s project for this town. These facilities both have a peak capacity of 50 MWp and consist of 151,452 modules.
Naturgy’s investment in all these plants will amount to €100 million and lead to the creation of approximately 200 jobs between the construction, operational and maintenance stages. The building work is expected to finish in the second quarter of next year.
The three photovoltaic plants, namely, Picón I, Picón II and Picón III, will produce about 270 GWh a year, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 108,000 homes, which is more than the electricity consumption of nearby municipalities such as Porzuna, Malagón, Picón and Piedrabuena.
These new infrastructures will enable the use of other conventional power generation sources to be reduced, helping to cut annual CO2 emissions by around 240,000 tonnes, as well as reducing other polluting emissions.
Commitment to Castile-La Mancha
Building Picón I, Picón II and Picón III is part of the 250 MW awarded in the auction of new renewable power held by the Spanish government in July 2017, which has enabled the company to make a big commitment to this technology in Castile-La Mancha, which is in the autonomous region where Naturgy has registered the biggest number of projects and the most photovoltaic capacity.
Besides the new plants in Porzuna, work started in April on building the La Nava solar photovoltaic plant, a facility located in Almodóvar del Campo and Puertollano (Ciudad Real) with an installed power of 49 MW and an investment of over €34 million.
In May, the first stone was laid at Carpio de Tajo, which will be the largest solar photovoltaic plant in the Toledo province and located in the El Carpio de Tajo municipality, with an installed power of 50 MWp and an investment of €30 million.
Naturgy also operates another facility with the same technology, Toledo PV, in La Puebla de Montalbán (Toledo). It is the oldest in Europe and entered operation in 1994 with a peak power of 1 MW.
In addition, the company has nine wind farms in Castile-La Mancha, which generated 493 GWh in 2017, covering the electricity needs of some 200,000 homes and avoiding the emission of 170,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Naturgy closed 2017 with a consolidated total installed power in operation of 1,147 MW (979 MW in wind power, 110 MW in mini-hydropower plants and 58 MW in cogeneration and photovoltaic plants).