SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - Nov 14, 2012) - Nanosolar Inc. today announced its largest solar photovoltaic (PV) installation to date, a 10.63 MW project in the town of Alfarrasi, which is located in the Valencia region of Spain. Developed by Smartenergy Invest AG and Advanta Capital Ltd., the new solar field is now the region's largest PV power plant to date. The plant was energized earlier this month and is expected to produce energy to power 4,000 households per year.
"Our installation supports Spain's national renewable energy action plan, which calls for renewable sources to account for at least 20 percent of the final energy consumption by 2020," said Stephan Hansen, executive vice president of Global Sales for Nanosolar. "The natural conditions in the Valencia region are excellent for photovoltaic and we expect Spain to be among the first countries to provide competitive solar electricity in Europe."
The Alfarrasi installation will be capable of producing 16,500 MWh per year. The total amount of electricity produced by this Nanosolar project represents a savings of more than 5,528 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, and is equivalent to planting approximately 142,000 trees.
"Nanosolar's innovative Utility Panel design made installation of our Alfarrasi system quick and simple," said José-Fidel Roig Agut, CEO of VALFORTEC, S.L., the Castellón, Spain-based EPC. "We were able to achieve a very cost-effective installation because of the unique design of Nanosolar's panels, and the ease with which they can be interconnected."
Bringing Clean Energy to Alfarrasi
The town of Alfarrasi is an ideal location for this solar installation, which encompasses over 50,000 panels across 65 acres of former agricultural land. The region features a semi-arid climate with very mild winters and long warm to hot summers. Solar irradiance is above-average with a typical annual temperature of 22.3 °C (72.1 °F) during the day and an annual irradiation of approximately 1,650 kWh/m2.
"As businesses and consumers look for ways to be more reliant on clean, sustainable energy sources, multi-megawatt solar installations, such as the one in Alfarrasi, become even more important," said Horst Mahmoudi, senior partner at Smartenergy AG. "Nanosolar has been a great technology partner to work with on this project, providing cutting-edge utility panels with superior energy yields that will enable us to deliver the benefits of abundant solar across the Valencia region."
About Nanosolar
Nanosolar designs, engineers, and manufactures innovative thin-film solar cells and panels based on printing CIGS (Copper, Indium, Gallium, Selenium) proprietary inks on low-cost aluminum foil. The company's current product, the Nanosolar Utility Panel, enables competitively priced peak power and installed system economics at utility-scale. Nanosolar operates the industry's first roll-to-roll solar cell printing factory at its headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and a panel-assembly factory in Luckenwalde, Germany. For more information, please visit www.nanosolar.com.
Contact Information:
Contact:
Susan Lehman
Rockpoint Public Relations
510-336-1700
susan@rockpointpr.com