Amid undulating hills dotted with olive groves and grazing sheep, the world's most powerful photovoltaic solar energy station officially went online Wednesday outside Serpa, a village of white-washed, orange-tiled homes about 125 miles southeast of Lisbon, Portugal. Green Wombat was there for the dedication ceremony for the 11-megawatt power station - built by Berkeley, California-based PowerLight (SPWR) and financed and owned by GE Energy Financial Services (GE) - that is now powering 8,000 homes. PowerLight is known for its commercial and residential rooftop solar arrays but has found a niche building utility-scale PV power stations in Europe.
The reception given PowerLight and GE shows why countries like Portgual, Spain and Germany have become attractive markets for solar power plants. Img_2692 Unlike the United States' complex and undependable system of state and federal tax credits for solar power, Portugal supports renewable energy with a simple "feed-in tariff" that will pay GE a premium rate for 15 years for the electricity produced by the $75 million Serpa power plant. Portugal modeled its policy on Spain's, were PowerLight is building two 20-megawatt range power stations.
See full Article.
Posts
