One of the world’s largest solar power plants has begun generating electricity on 60-hectares (150-acre)in Portugal.
The Serpa plant consists of 52,000 PV modules spread across the equivalent of over 80 football fields, with a capacity of 11 MW.
After eight months of construction and testing, GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of General Electric (NYSE: GE), PowerLight, a subsidiary of SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR) and Catavento dedicated the 11-megawatt Serpa solar power plant on schedule. GE Energy Financial Services financed and purchased the project in an approximately US $75 million transaction last year. PowerLight, a leading global solar power system provider, designed, deployed, operates and maintains the plant. The plant uses PowerLight’s innovative PowerTracker® system that follows the sun’s daily path across the sky to generate more electricity than conventional fixed-mounted systems. Catavento, a leading Portuguese renewable energy company, developed and manages the project, which began feeding Portugal’s electricity grid in late January.
Kevin Walsh, Managing Director and leader of renewable energy at GE Energy Financial Services, said, “This project is successful because Portugal’s sunshine is plentiful, the solar power technology is proven, government policies are supportive, and we are investing and delivering under GE’s ecomagination initiative to help our customers meet their environmental challenges.”
Added Andrew Marsden, Managing Director of GE Energy Financial Services’ European Operations: “The Serpa project is a springboard for other solar power investments we’re pursuing in Europe through project acquisitions, project finance, development capital and access to solar modules through GE Energy.”
At the opening ceremony, a 3.7 million euro (US $4.8 million) contract was signed for a grant to the project under the Portuguese government’s Economic Modernization Program.
Construction of the Serpa project began in June 2006 and was completed as planned in January 2007. The facility consists of a ground-mounted photovoltaic system that uses silicon solar cell technology to convert sunlight directly into energy. The Serpa solar power plant incorporates photovoltaic modules from SunPower, Sanyo, Sharp and Suntech.
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