Over the past two years, RWE has taken major steps to expand its solar business to more than 4.2 gigawatts worldwide. In addition to the US and Australia, Europe offers great opportunities for solar growth. Following the start of construction of its largest solar project in Greece and first solar plants in the UK, RWE has now commissioned its largest Spanish solar project to date. Gazules is a 92-megawatt (MWac) ground-mounted photovoltaic plant in the province of Cádiz in Andalusia. It consists of two solar projects – Gazules 1 and Gazules 2 – each with a rated capacity of 46 MWac.
RWE has installed around 240,000 bifacial modules on a total area of 140 hectares. The utility-scale solar farm first fed electricity into the grid in February 2024 and has been gradually put into operation with full commissioning in April. Gazules will be able to supply the equivalent of 20,000 Spanish homes with green electricity annually.
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Katja Wünschel, CEO Onshore Wind and Solar Europe & Australia, RWE Renewables: “In less than two years, we have installed more than 550,000 solar modules on the Iberian Peninsula and have increased our solar capacity sixfold to approximately 300 megawatts. That is a fantastic track record. The sun in Europe is a great partner on our path to net-zero by 2040. With Gazules we have commissioned our largest Iberian solar plant to date.”
Solar and wind investments
In 2020, RWE commissioned its first Spanish utility-scale solar farm, Alarcos, with a capacity of 45 MW. Following the commissioning of four new solar farms in Spain (Las Vaguadas, Casa Valdes, Puerta del Sol, Gazules) during the past two years, as well as the commissioning of the 46-MWac Morgavel photovoltaic farm in Portugal, RWE has a solar capacity of approximately 300 MW on the Iberian Peninsula. After the commissioning of the innovative Orkoien onshore wind project at the end of last year, RWE Renewables Iberia now has onshore wind farms with a total capacity of around 500 MW in operation.
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Building on its long-established onshore and solar business in Spain, RWE is keen to enter the Spanish offshore market with its partner, Ferrovial. The two companies plan to jointly develop, construct and operate floating offshore wind farms off the Spanish coast. (hcn)
