Tuesday 13 July 2010
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xFypM6tvIXg/TET7GeLTmLI/AAAAAAAABaI/XuiMaQbc7Vw/s320/100715+Spain.jpg)
The new La Florida solar plant takes Spain's solar output to 432MW, which compares with the US output of 422MW. The plant, at Alvarado. Badajoz, in the west of the country, is a parabolic trough. With this method of collecting solar power, sunlight is reflected off a parabolic mirror on to a fluid-filled tube. The heated liquid is then used to heat steam to run the turbines. The mirror rotates during the day to follow the sun's movement. The solar farm covers 550,000 m² (the size of around 77 football pitches) and produces 50MW of power.
Protermosolar, the association that represents the solar power sector, says that within a year another 600MW will have come on-stream and projects that by 2013 solar capacity will have reached 2,500MW.
The northern, though thinly populated, region of Navarra is already producing 75% of its energy from a range of renewables, including wind, solar, hydro and biomass. Spain's wind farms now produce around 20,000MW of electricity and on one day in November they accounted for 53% of demand. Last year, solar power met 2.8% of demand out a total of 12.9% for all renewables. In March, the government announced a plan to increase the renewable share to 22.7% by 2020, slightly ahead of EU targets.
With an average of 340 days of sunshine a year in Spain, solar is more reliable than wind, and can go a long way towards weaning the country off gas-fired and ageing nuclear power stations. Spain is now the fourth largest manufacturer of solar power technology in the world and both solar and wind power technology exports have become valuable earners in a country with a weak manufacturing.
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