Iberdrola installs first floating solar PV power plant in Brazil

The Iberdrola group announced plans to install in Brazil, through its subsidiary Neoenergia, the company's first floating photovoltaic plant in the world.

The project will be built on the water surface of the Xaréu dam on the island of Fernando de Noronha, recognised by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage Site, where Iberdrola is developing various sustainable energy solutions.

This project will be carried out together with Companhia Pernambucana de Saneamento (Compesa), which operates the water and sewage distribution network throughout the island, and with the support of the Energy Efficiency Programme regulated by the Brazilian National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel).

With an output of 630 kilowatts (kW), the floating plant will generate around 1,240 megawatt hours (MWh) of green energy per year, enough to cover, with zero-kilometre electricity supply, more than 50 percent of Compesa's energy consumption on the island. The installation will have around 940 panels that will prevent the emission into the atmosphere of more than 1,660 tonnes of CO2 per year. The construction of this project, which is expected to begin before the end of the year, will involve an investment of 2 million euros.

Iberdrola said in a statement that the development of its first floating solar power plant will allow the company to test this new technology and analyse its possible expansion.

This plant joins other sustainable projects developed by the company to provide renewable solutions and promote the preservation of the ecosystem of the island, the only inhabited island of the volcanic archipelago located in the northeast of Brazil, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Among these initiatives is the recently inaugurated Vacaria solar plant. This is the first of two solar farms, each with a capacity of 50 kW, designed to supply electric vehicles exclusively. In the event of a surplus, the surplus energy will be fed into the distribution grid.

The construction of these facilities is part of the 'Senda Verde' project developed by the Iberdrola group within the Aneel R&D Programme, in which it has partners such as Renault and the Centre for Telecommunications Research and Development (CPqD), among others.