Spain

The giant solar plant was given the greenlight by Spain’s National Commission on Financial Markets and Competition (CNMC). The project was previously given approval by Spain’s Ministry of Environmental Affairs in mid-2015.

The Calzadilla de los Barros solar project was planned to have a capacity of 394 MW. The project is one of several giant PV projects announced across several Spanish southern regions over the past years.

In the auction, which will be open to wind and PV power projects, all the projects not chosen in the 3 GW auction held two weeks ago will likely have another chance to compete.

Spanish solar association UNEF claims PV was discriminated against in the auction and announced it will appeal to the European Commission.

Spain must pay €128 million for cuts to compensation for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants as ordered by the World Bank’s ICSID, where many other cases for investors in solar PV and other renewable energy projects are pending.

The Israeli investment firm agreed to acquire a special purpose vehicle owning a 300 MW PV project in the southern Spanish region of Extremadura.

The Spanish government has published the auction timeline and the amount of capacity it intends to allocate. Several renewable energy technologies will compete in the tender.

The independent power producer is now the owner of the Vela Portfolio, which amounts to 136 MW of solar PV capacity across 43 Spanish sites, and has been sold by Centerbridge Partners.

In 2016, Spain’s solar development was driven by grid-connected PV systems for self-consumption and stand-alone systems for agricultural use.

Independent solar power producer Sonnedix has continued its flurry of activity into 2017 with an agreement to purchase 136 MW of operational solar power plants from Centerbridge Partners in Spain, which will see its global capacity reach almost 500 MW.