Spanish EPC company GRS has started construction of a 122MW solar PV project in Badajoz, Spain on behalf of solar developer Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV).
The Carmonita Norte project is expected to be operational in the second half of 2023 and marks the fourth major project undertaken in Spain by Gransolar Group’s subsidiary GRS.
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Spread across three solar plants, the project will have more than 185,000 bifacial solar panels, a common interconnection infrastructure and an elevator substation, as well as a 220kV high voltage line distributed over 6.7km.
Solar trackers will be supplied by Gransolar’s subsidiary, PV Hardware – which plans to build a solar tracker facility in Spain to increase its annual capacity to 25GW – with the pile-driving works of the structures that will support the modules and solar trackers starting a month ahead of schedule.
“A few months of hard work and interesting challenges await us, but also of reaping the rewards of the capabilities we have demonstrated to complete large projects and that have allowed us to meet the needs of our customers,” said Jordi Vega, COO at Gransolar.
The construction of the Spanish project for FRV follows the start of another project in Portugal last month, with GRS beginning construction of an 82MW solar PV plant on behalf of German investment and asset manager KGAL.
After authorising nearly 25GW of solar PV capacity across Spain this year, the increased demand for EPC contractors might represent a key challenge for the country to add more capacity as it might face a bottleneck of EPC contractors to cover all the projects in the coming years.
Last year, Spain installed 3.7GW of ground-mounted solar PV capacity, bringing its total ground-mounted installed capacity to 19.6GW, according to a recent report from trade association the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF).
PV Tech publisher Solar Media will be organising the 11th annual edition of Large Scale Solar Europe in Lisbon, Portugal during 21-22 March. The event will explore the future solar markets of Portugal, Spain and Italy and with panels around securing faster grid connection, solar-wind hybrid projects and the integration of storage with solar PV among others. More information, including how to attend, can be read here.