September 20 (Renewables Now) – Spanish utility Iberdrola said on Monday it had obtained the environmental impact statement (EIS) for a 375-MW solar PV project it set in the region of Extremadura, western Spain.
The project is sited in Cedillo, a tiny town located close to the border with Portugal. Iberdrola said it would use over 576,000 bifacial PV modules and assemble the plant on a communal farm owned by a large number of local residents.
Extremadura-based firms Faramax and IMEDEXSA were selected to supply transformers and towers for the power lines, respectively.
Once in operation, the Cedillo solar farm will be capable of generating over 582.4 GWh per year, or about as much power as it would take a combined-cycle gas plant to produce using more than 97 million cubic metres of gas, according to the utility.
Building large-scale renewables on farmland has become a bone of contention in Spain, with a large number of environmentalist groups claiming that these projects are a threat to natural spaces and rural way of life.
Iberdrola says its solar project has the support of the town council and the Cedillo Agrarian Society, and that the locals will be able to continue raising livestock in the plant’s area.
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