ABO Wind is currently constructing a 50 MW solar farm in central Spain that will be grid-connected at the node of a dismantled nuclear power plant. Valdezorita solar farm is the company’s first turnkey project in Spain. It is located in the Yebra municipality in Castilla La-Mancha. The ground-mounted photovoltaic system will have a total nominal output of around 50 MW and an annual production of around 100 GWh. It comprises 87 000 modules. Construction started in January and is progressing according to plan. The installation of the mounting systems and panels is scheduled for the summer. Commissioning of the plant is expected for early 2025.

“Our project team has developed this large project in a relatively short period of time over the past four years,” said Patricia Comes Salvador, Managing Director of ABO Energy España S.A.U. and Head of the Spanish Project Development. “The collaboration with landowners and public authorities has proven to be excellent, and we were able to develop the solar farm with the support of the residents and local councils. The project will also economically benefit the rural area by granting large scale contracts to Spanish subcontractors.”

The grid capacity for Valdezorita solar farm was granted taking into account criteria of socioeconomic and environmental benefits for the area affected by the closure of the former nuclear plant. Several environmental impact compensation measures are being implemented, for example marking and radio tracking of autochthonous eagles, such as imperial and/or golden eagles, nest boxes for European roller birds (Coracias Garrulus), and habitat improvement for steppe birds.

The solar farm is the largest one in the company’s history thus far to use tracker technology to orient the angle of the panels towards the sun and optimise the yield. ABO Wind has financed the project with an investment volume in the double-digit million-euro range with funds from the German KfW bank and in cooperation with DAL Deutsche Anlagen-Leasing GmbH & Co. KG. For the project, ABO Wind has also secured a long-term pay-as-produced power purchase agreement (PPA) with a large international offtaker.