Photo Credit: Green Wombat

Last week, the planet’s most powerful solar energy system was inaugurated in Serpa, Portugal, about 125 miles southeast of Lisbon. Covering approximately 150 acres, the solar farm is already making electricity for 8,000 homes in one of the poorest areas of the country.

The solar system was built by California-based PowerLight and financed and owned by GE Energy Financial Services. Todd Woody of the Green Wombat blog was at the dedication ceremony:

“The reception given PowerLight and GE shows why countries like Portgual, Spain and Germany have become attractive markets for solar power plants. 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.”

Although a new solar plant in Germany has the capacity to produce more power, experts believe that the technology and good solar resources in Portugal will allow the Serpa plant’s 52,000 panels to actually produce more electricity than any other plant in the world.

Portugal’s global warming emissions have surged 37 percent since 1990, one of the largest increases of any nation. Besides being a source of clean, renewable energy, the USD $75 million solar plant is expected to spur more alternative energy development in the region. It will also help Portugal take a step towards its rather astonishing goal of getting 45 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010.

Green Wombat
International Herald Tribune
Stuff, via Green@WorkToday