Los Naranjos will be composed of 128,520 PV panels of 340 Wp each. To operate the facilities, Endesa, through EGPE, will build nine switching stations, an electric substation and an underground cable network spanning 4.5 kilometers.
The facility is expected to come online in late 2020 and once operational, it is set to produce around 100 GWh a year, hence avoiding the emission of approximately 67,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
Since the end of 2019, EGPE has been building another 50 MW “Las Corchas” PV plant in Carmona, in which it will it is investing 30 million euros. These two facilities are the company's biggest PV plant developed in Andalusia to date, with a combined capacity of around 100 MW.
The construction of this renewable capacity is part of Endesa's strategy to fully decarbonize its generation mix by 2050; based on the company's current Strategic Plan, the goal is to achieve an installed renewable capacity of 10.2 GW by 2022, compared to the 7.4 GW in 2019, which include the 879 MW under the 2017 auctions, for a total investment of 3.8 billion euros.
These plants will be built under sustainable engineering criteria, whereby Enel Green Power's “Sustainable Construction Site” model will be applied. This model envisages the installation of PV panels to meet some of the energy needs during the construction works and water saving measures by installing deposits and rain collection systems. Once the works have been completed, both the PV panels and the water saving equipment will be donated to the town for public use.
Two out of these sustainable initiatives, namely the installation of photovoltaic equipment for the worksite’s energy consumption during construction which will be donated to the local community for public use upon completion of construction works, as well as the use of electric transportation in some EGPE projects, have been included as sustainable engineering actions as part of the 2018 Climate Projects by Spain’s Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITECO).
Endesa currently manages, through EGPE, over 7,438 MW of renewable capacity in Spain. Of this amount, 4,701 MW is conventional hydro power and the remaining 2,737 MW are from wind power (2,292 MW), solar power (352 MW), mini-hydro (79 MW) and other renewable energy sources (14 MW).
Enel Green Power, within the Enel Group, is dedicated to the development and operation of renewables across the world, with a presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Enel Green Power is a global leader in the green energy sector with a managed capacity of around 46 GW across a generation mix that includes wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower, and is at the forefront of integrating innovative technologies into renewable power plants.