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World’s Largest Solar-Power Systems — A Few of Them Anyway

Serpa Solar Power Plant, Portugal

Serpa is the largest photovoltaic solar power plant sits in Portugal, located roughly 125 miles south of Lisbon on a hillside pasture covered with olive trees. The solar power plant, which boasts 52,000 photovoltaic modules and cost around $75 million, has 11MW of installed power capacity.

The area receives some of the heaviest solar radiation in Europe and when fully operational will produce enough electricity for 8,000 homes. Construction on the Serpa solar power project began in June 2006, Serpa began feeding electricity into Portugal’s power grid in late January 2007. SunPower, Sanyo, Sharp and Suntech designed photovoltaic modules for the solar power park.

Portugal relies heavily on imported fossil fuels, and its carbon dioxide emissions have risen 34% since 1990, among the fastest increases in the world. To address this, the country is implementing some of the world’s most advanced incentives for installing renewable energy.

Parque Solar Hoya de Los Vincentes

In January 2008, Spain completed the world’s largest solar power park — Parque Solar Hoya de Los Vincentes — in the Jumilla province. At capacity, the park’s 120,000 solar panels can produce 23 megawatts of electricity, which makes it the world’s largest solar power park in terms of grid-connected capacity. Hoya sits in an area roughly 100 hectares long and contains a constellation of 200 photovoltaic solar plants. Each plant has 100 kW capacity. Perhaps the most impressive feat though is how quickly the park was built –only 11 months. The plant went live in late 2007.

San Francisco Solar City

Since 2001, two solar projects have been in the works in San Francisco that will provide enough lectricity for 60,000 homes in the Bay Area. When fully operational, the plant will be the world’s largest solar facility. The first phase of construction, which includes 675kW installed solar power capacity on the Moscone Convention Centre, is already complete. Ultimately, the plant will be 50MW solar power facility has begun, with 140 to 250 acres of photovoltaic panels being installed on commercial, residential and government rooftops. Another 10MW to 12MW of solar power will come from an agreement linked to 30MW of wind power, costing $100 million. This involves photovoltaic panels being fixed to city facilities and buildings.

Solar Tower PS-10 Seville, Spain

This mega solar-tower near Seville, Spain is part of a 300MW national solar power project in Spain. The concrete tower reaches over 40 stories high and captures sunlight from a field of 624 massive mirrors. At times, the sunlight is powerful enough to illuminate the dust and water in the air. The system’s PS10 will be the world’s first commercial thermoelectric solar tower, and Sevilla PV, the largest low concentration system photovoltaic plant. The project, scheduled to be complete in 2013, will ultimately cost around €1,200m when it will produce around 300MW energy for around 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville.

Nellis Air Force Base (Nellis, Nevada)

The Nellis Air Force Base solar power park completed construction in December 2007, becoming the largest photovoltaic system in North America. The solar power system provides about a quarter of the electricity needs of the base, which sits northeast of Las Vegas and has about 12,000 military and civilian workers. The PV arrays include 72,000 panels mounted on single-axis tracking systems. The arrays track the sun during sunlight hours and produce up to 30% more electricity than typical fixed-position solar panels.