Iberdrola España starts up its first photovoltaic plant in Salamanca with the help of 5 Basque suppliers

• With a capacity of 50 MW, the facility, located in the Salamanca municipality of Villarino de los Aires, will generate enough clean energy to supply a population equivalent to 26,000 homes and will prevent the emission of 12,000 tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere per year. 
• Its development has had an important Basque component, exerting a tractor effect in its supply chain with a total of 5 suppliers from the Basque Country. 
• The Basque company has allocated more than €33 million to this project, which has benefited from the experience of the Basque companies Jema, Ingeteam, MESA, Elecnor and Gonvarri.

Iberdrola España has completed the construction of its first photovoltaic projectExternal link, opens in new window.  in Salamanca, the Villarino plant, with a capacity of 50 megawatts (MW) located in the municipality of Villarino de los Aires, and is now immersed in the commissioning process. And it has done so hand in hand with five Basque suppliers: Ingeteam, MESA, Elecnor, Gonvarri and JEMA.

Its development has had an important Basque component. The Basque company has relied on the experience of a total of five Basque suppliers for this renewable project: the Gipuzkoan company Jema, which forms part of the Irizar Group; the Biscayan electrical equipment engineering company Ingeteam; the engineering group Elecnor; MESA, and Gonvarri.

Specifically, Jema has provided the inverters, which are being used for the first time in an Iberdrola España facility; Ingeteam, the Substation Control Unit (SCU); Elecnor has built the underground connection line, MESA the High Voltage switchgear; and Gonvarri, the entire structure of the plant.

The company has allocated more than €33 million to this project, which reinforces the company's innovative and renewable leadership in Castilla y León. 

This new solar energyExternal link, opens in new window.  production facility with more than 110,000 photovoltaic modules will generate enough clean energy to supply a population equivalent to more than 26,000 homes and will also prevent the emission of 12,000 tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere per year. 

Iberdrola España works on numerous initiatives that combine the installation of renewable projects with the conservation of the biological diversity of ecosystems, caring for flora, fauna and natural heritage. In this case, it has placed a vegetation screen around the plant made up of real and potential vegetation in the area that will serve to integrate the installation into the environment in a natural way. 

It will also install nesting boxes for the European roller, a species in clear decline in the area, as well as refuge and breeding boxes for bats. It will also build fire-fighting corridors and four water tanks to support forest firefighting teams.

In addition, the company will carry out forestry treatments and reforestation, in addition to Quercus pyrenaica, with other species such as Sorbus torminalis, Sorbus doméstica, Pyrus bourgoreana, Malus silvestris, Prunus spinosa, and in areas with water, Fraxinus sp, Salix salvifolius and Salix atrocinerea and, to a lesser extent, Juglans regia and Celtis australis will be planted. A series of measures aimed at improving the state of conservation and favouring the ecological processes of the Pyrenean oak and its associated fauna have also been proposed. 

A NEW ENERGY LANDSCAPE THAT FIXES POPULATION IN RURAL AREAS

Iberdrola España promotes renewable energies as an engine for rural development and in this way the villages emerge as a guarantee for the future. This is the case of the villages in Castille and Leon that Iberdrola España is promoting and which will contribute to a sustainable recovery, allowing the creation of local employment.