Soon after local media reported that Acciona has secured administrative approval for a 1.125 MW solar power plant in Spain, the company has officially announced that it has begun installing the country's 'first' grid-connected floating solar PV demonstration plant on 12,000 m² surface area of Sierra Brava Reservoir in Zorita region of Caceres in Extremadura.
This demonstration project will be studied with an aim to further implement such commercial floating solar projects on more lakes and reservoirs and around the world. It is expected to be completed by mid of 2020.
Sharing details about the project, Acciona said the 1,650-hectare artificial reservoir Sierra Brava holds the waters of the Pizarroso stream and the 1.125 MW floating solar power plant will occupy around 0.07% of the reservoir space. Acciona will evaluate different panel configurations and technologies along with floatation structures here.
The entire 1.125 MW capacity will be installed in the form of 5 adjacent floating systems from Amilibia Marinas, Isigenere and Stansol companies, each with 600 PV panels and these systems will be anchored to the bottom of the reservoir and linked to the shore by a jetty. Three 60 kW inverters will convert the power which will be sent to a small transformer center and finally transported underground along a 1.4-kilometer (km) powerline to the grid connection point.
Funded by the Spanish Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI), the floating PV project will be accompanied by a meteorological station to measure parameters as solar radiation, temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, air pressure and precipitation.