Endesa exceeds one terawatt hour of solar power production in Spain

Endesa has surpassed the first terawatt hour (TWh) of 'green' energy production thanks to the solar facilities it has throughout Spain, the company said on Monday.

The company has highlighted that this is a milestone in the production of this energy, as it is the first time this figure has been reached in a single year, and estimates that 2021 will close with 1.1 TWh of solar production.

Endesa has achieved this record output thanks to the 17 installations that its renewable energy subsidiary Enel Green Power España has in Extremadura, Andalusia, Murcia and the Balearic Islands.

This first solar terawatt hour, which is equivalent to the annual consumption of a city of around 250,000 inhabitants, joins Endesa's 10 terawatt hours of renewable energy production from other sources in Spain, such as wind and hydro.

Endesa has confirmed that it will continue to develop new renewable energy facilities. Before the end of the year, it plans to install 600 megawatts of new solar capacity and is still in the pipeline for new renewable capacity with the aim of producing all its energy emission-free by 2040.

Endesa's facilities have an installed capacity of 612 megawatts (MW) and 38 employees operating and maintaining the plants.

In addition to reaching one terawatt hour of renewable production, the company's solar plants have also become ecosystems for the protection of local species, plant cultivation, sheep grazing and a refuge for bees that produce the first solar honey.

In this regard, Endesa has highlighted that its plants in Totana (Murcia), Valdecaballeros and Augusto (Extremadura), and soon Carmona (Seville), have agroforestry crops, i.e. plantations under the solar panels that enable local agriculture to be generated with local produce. 

In addition, all Endesa's plants have local shepherds who collaborate in the clearing tasks, but where the traditional sheep do not reach, it uses state-of-the-art robots for this task. Endesa also has the first solar apiary in Spain, installed at the Carmona solar plant, where honeycombs, panels and the latest technology coexist with intelligent hives equipped with monitoring, weight, temperature and domotised opening systems.