Brussels, 17/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 13 November, the European Investment Bank (EIB) granted Iberdrola SA a €300 million loan to finance the expansion of three of the company's hydropower plants in Galicia and Valencia. Then, on Monday 16 November, the Bank announced a €80 million loan to GEMASOLAR 2006 SAU to finance the construction and commissioning of a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Fuentes de Andalucía (province of Seville).
The Iberdrola loan will help to finance the expansion of the San Esteban II and San Pedro II hydropower plants on the Sil River (Galicia) and the La Muela II reversible plant in the province of Valencia. The schemes are designed to increase the plants' generating capacity by more than 1 GW and La Muela II's pumping capacity by 750 MW. The project will increase the proportion of Spain's power generation from renewable sources. Iberdrola currently has around 10,000 MW of installed hydropower generation capacity, representing nearly 25% of the company's total.
The Gemasolar loan will allow the construction of a new concentrated solar power plant with a nominal capacity of 17 MW. The EIB says that the new plant is a global pioneer in the commercial application of CSP technology and the only existing commercial-scale solar power demonstration project based on a central tower receiver and heliostat field and an innovative molten salt heat storage system. This storage system will allow independent power generation for up to 15 hours with no solar input while increasing energy efficiency by enabling electricity production for some 6,600 hours a year - around 2.5-3 times as much as other renewable energies. Gemasolar is the flagship project of Torresol Energy Investment SA, which is 60% owned by the Spanish engineering group SENER and 40% by Masdar, the government of Abu Dhabi's renewable energies development company. The Gemasolar plant will supply clean and secure energy to 25,000 households, reduce CO2 emissions by more than 30,000 tonnes a year and create around 1,000 direct jobs during the construction phase. (O.L./transl.rt)