Spanish Region Backs $571 Million (400 MW) Solar Plant Without Subsidies
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-17/spanish-region-backs-571-million-solar-plant-without-subsidies
Spains Extremadura region will support a 450 million-euro ($571 million) photovoltaic plant planned by German and local developers, its third solar project that wont rely on subsidies.
The regional authority signed an agreement to fast-track permitting for a 400-megawatt solar park by S.A.G. Solarstrom AG (SAG) and Valsolar 2006 SL, according to a statement today. The developers aim to start building the plant by 2014 and complete it in 2015.
The solar project, in Calzadilla de los Barros and Bienvenida, is at least the fifth planned in the nation without the support of subsidies, which were halted for all new plants in January. Three have been proposed in Extremadura and two in Murcia this year.
This project will be a milestone nationally and in Europe, Oliver Guenther, a Solarstrom board member, told a press conference on May 14. It will be the first of this size in Europe that will generate power without state subsidies.
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