Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) and Dalkia Solar, leader in photovoltaic solar installations, today inaugurated Ibi Solar Fotovoltaica. The plant officially opened this morning has a power of 1.2 MWp and is located in Ibi, Alicante, specifically in Polígono Industrial La Marjal. Within the same project, FRV has also completed the start up of a similar installation of 1.4 MWp in the town of Onil, also in the province of Alicante. These facilities have a combined power of 2.6 MWp.

The facility, owned by FRV, is its first project on an industrial rooftop in Spain. The facility has been designed, planned and built by Dalkia Solar which will also be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the facilities in the future.

The two facilities cover a total area of 54,000 m 2 , – the equivalent of 12 football pitches -, distributed over 5 industrial buildings. In total, they will achieve total annual production of over 3.9 million kilowatt hours of clean electricity, thus making it one of largest rooftop photovoltaic solar installations in size and power built so far in the Autonomous Community of Valencia.

This production is equivalent to the supply of electricity necessary for 3,500 inhabitants, which represents the equivalent consumption of 15% of the population of Ibi.

Clean energy

The Ibi Solar facility (Ibi and Onil) will also represent an important saving in polluting emissions. Thus, between the two facilities, the dispersion into the atmosphere of more than 2,000 t of CO2 (causing the greenhouse effect) will be avoided.

For the facility located in Ibi, Dalkia Solar has carried out a project with a group of three buildings in total, with a total area of 29,261 m2. This facility, with a power of 1207.36 kWp, will generate 1,795,769 kWh of clean electricity each year. In turn, the facility in Onil occupies an area of 30,000 m2 and has a power of 1,426.88 kWp which will generate 2,120,384 kWh of electricity each year.

With an estimated useful life of more than 30 years, the Ibi Solar plant will require qualified labour for the Operation and Maintenance tasks and will therefore also be an important source of jobs in the area.

Technical details

The decision concerning the location of the plant was made using, among other criteria, the fact that the Autonomous Community of Valencia, and specifically the province of Alicante, is one of the provinces offering the highest annual solar irradiation in Spain. Specifically, the towns of Ibi and Onil receive over 1500 kWh/m2 and 1600 kWh/m2 respectively, making them ideal for facilities of this type.

To select the location, the PVGIS data base has been used, belonging to the Renewable Energy Unit of the European Commission, and with a network of 566 weather stations distributed all over Europe, it is a benchmark for determining solar radiation.

As far as the technical specifications are concerned, the project consists of a total of 9,408 photovoltaic panels on a fixed structure inclined 30º, with Santerno inverters and Suntech modules.

About Dalkia Solar

Dalkia Solar, based in Agullent (Valencia), is a leading firm in the installation and maintenance of photovoltaic solar facilities, both ground and rooftop. Dalkia Solar is a subsidiary of Dalkia, leading European company in energy efficiency and environmental services and has more than 52,560 collaborators in 42 countries where it obtained turnover of 8,140 million euros in 2009.